Broken Throne
by Lazaraes
Summary: I warned you not to die before I came back if you ever wanted to control my power… King.
1. Chapter 1

I warned you not to die before I came back if you ever wanted to control my power… King.

This takes place directly after Ulquiorra's last attack on Ichigo and is something of a 'What if' scenario.  
>Disclaimer: I definitely don't own Bleach.<p>

Edited: 8/25/13

Spoken:

Zangetsu

**Hollow**

_Thought:_

_Zangetsu_

**_Hollow_**

Aibou = partner  
>Baka = idiotfool/stupid

The screech of bone being cut sliced through the air and time seemed to slow as the three's thoughts sped along. Ulquiorra had done it. The question was would it be enough?

The horn began to fall and for a long moment it seemed the effort put forth was in vain as the shining sphere continued to spin, then the moment was over. Time seemed to kick back in and the sphere quickly became irregular. The one horn wasn't enough to support the vast compressed power. Ulquiorra allowed himself to feel a sense of victory as the unstable sphere rapidly expanded into an explosion which shook the air, knocking himself and the other two backwards with nothing but the shockwave.

When the dust settled down it revealed the still standing figure with long bright orange and a hole gaping in its chest. The only difference he could see from before was that the figure now only had a partial mask with a broken horn.

\NMN/

Ichigo hit the ground with a thud mask shattering before his hair, alterations to his hands and feet, as well as the pieces of his mask turned into white goo before coalescing to the hole in his chest to seal it. His eyes suddenly snapped open and he heaved in a huge gasp of air before scrambling to his feet. His hand immediately moved to his chest and he instantly became paler. Something was wrong because where the hole had been his skin gave easily under his touch almost as if his sternum wasn't there anymore.

"You're back," Uryuu choked out and Ichigo whipped around before blanching even further at the sight of a sword – _his_ sword – protruding from the boy's chest.

"Did I do that?" He suddenly demanded in little more than a whisper. A familiar but chilling cackle echoed at the edge of his consciousness and Ichigo barely managed to keep himself from reacting noticeably, though he missed the answer given to him entirely. Even without hearing, he was pretty sure he knew the answer as the resounding laugh retreated further into his mind. He turned to Ulquiorra and cringed at the damage he saw before babbling something about wanting to fight fairly even though he could tell the Espada had little time left. When he began to fade away Ichigo managed to silence himself as the shock of what had happened slowly began to set in. Trying to shake himself out of it and act calm he turned to Inoue tentatively, "Can you work on healing Ishida? I… I need to talk to Zangestsu."

She looked at him in worry and even a bit of fear and nodded slowly before turning to the Quincy to kneel by him. Ichigo turned away as she began to pry HIS sword from their friend's chest and his forced calm expression finally began to crumble. He walked quickly away from the two then dropped into a meditation pose and began focusing his mind inward until he felt the familiar tug followed by blackness.

When his vision cleared he found himself in his inner world and he stood up quickly terror entirely evident on his face as he looked around for the two beings that shared his mindscape. He noticed Zangestsu standing nearby looking into the distance with a brooding expression, "Zangetsu?" Ichigo asked in a small voice and the older spirit turned to him in what Ichigo thought was the most surprise he had seen on the man.

"Ichigo, I didn't see you there," the old spirit said almost tiredly. That in itself worried Ichigo even more, the spirit was never surprised by Ichigo's appearance.

"Old man... What just happened? I… I thought I died?"

"That Ichigo, is something you'll have to ask him," Zangetsu gestured behind Ichigo and he turned quickly to see his inner hollow in the strangest state he had ever seen him: hysterics.

"Um…" Ichigo paused, "What just…"

**"I told ya not ta die King. I did, but man if yeh can't listen,"** the hollow interrupted him his distorted voice sending shivers down Ichigo's spine. The hollow began laughing uncontrollably causing Ichigo to flinch back. Something wasn't right here, and he didn't know what to do about it. The hollow finally managed to regain some control and he pointed accusingly at Ichigo, **"I fucking TOLD YA not to die King, and look at us now!"** He leapt forward faster than Ichigo could react and pulled Ichigo's uniform apart at the top,**"YOU!"** He pointed at something Ichigo didn't have time to look at before pulling his own uniform open as well and finishing quietly, **"and me."** Ichigo stared at a gaping hole in his hollow's chest and then comprehension began to dawn on him and he fumbled for his chest and felt something he hadn't even noticed until it was pointed out. A hole. A hollow hole was in his chest. Ichigo wasn't even able to scream he was so overwhelmed by the inescapable fact, but his distress was easily noticed as entire buildings in his world imploded and the weather suddenly grew frightening.

Suddenly his hollow smacked him hard snapping him back into some semblance of sanity. **"Don't ya go freaking out**_**Aibou,**_**"** he snapped sarcastically as he stood again. **"I didn't have one either before, but ya don't see me trying to kill our mind."**

"It was a near thing though," Zangestsu commented flatly.

The hollow ignored him and continued, **"I DID tell ya not to die if ya ever wanted to fully control my power! Now… even**_**I**_**don't know what's gonna to happen now!"** His sentenced ended in a shriek and Ichigo realized that somehow even his hollow was scared.

"I… what…I…I'm sorry," said finally his expression forlorn and he reached out to touch his hollow on the shoulder causing him to twitch but nothing more. Clearly they were in a lot more trouble than Ichigo had originally imagined. After a long pause he finally asked, "Could you tell me what happened after… after I… died?" He stumbled over the last word in little more than a whisper.

His hollow turned to him with the most serious expression Ichigo had ever seen on the normally smiling being, **"Your spirit was dying King."** His watery voice echoed through the silence of Ichigo's mindscape, **"I couldn't… I couldn't let that happen ya know? You die, I die, simple as that."**

Ichigo nodded slowly, "So what exactly did you do?"

The hollow turned away from him, his eyes distant, **"This wasn't like the last time ya know? Last time it was just your throat so all I had to do was give ya more access to my power and yer spirit survived long enough for someone to heal ya."** He turned to Ichigo, **"Ya may be shit at sensing energy, but I'm not. I could feel that**_**girl**_**,"** he grimaced at the thought of Inoue,**"coming and knew we'd be okay. Not this time though."** He turned away again, **"This time it was yer lungs, yer liver, part of yer heart, I couldn't even tell what all was damaged, and that**_**Espada**_**,"** he spat, **"would never have let her help ya."**

Ichigo spoke quietly as the hollow gathered his thoughts, "Was that why I was able to keep my mask on longer against Grimjow?"

The hollow smirked slightly, **"Yeah. Betcha thought it was something you did didn'tcha."**

"Honestly I wasn't sure why it happened," Ichigo said in a subdued voice. At some point he had gotten used to the hollow's voice and it barely affected him anymore. "So this time was different," Ichigo prodded.

His hollow let out a slight cackle and nodded, **"Ya could definitely say that. This time,"** he turned to Ichigo, **"I slipped into yer spirit body so ye could fully access ALL of my power."**

Ichigo tensed and a slight gasp escaped his lips, but his hollow continued as if nothing had happened, **"Problem was yeh were unconscious, or nearly anyway, so instead of yeh being in control, neither of us were. What ya did… was ALL instinct and zero control. I think ya knew you were helping someone, but ya didn't even know who anymore. Nearly killed 'em too."**

Ichigo cringed back, the facts his hollow relayed hitting him harder than any attack.

**"Here's where the problem starts though,"** his hollow commented tiredly,**"It shouldn' have done that. It shoulda just healed ya like the time before. The problem was yer mind-set I'm guessin', which kept ya fighting. The first time ye just didn't wanna _die_. This time… this time ye accepted its help ta _fight_, so instead of just healing ya… it transformed ye all the way into a hollow."** He paused, **"I know ya probably felt it in your outside body, and I did my best to cover it up so they wouldn't notice, but that hole's permanent Aibou. There's only a thin layer of skin an' muscle over it."**

Ichigo shuddered at the news, "So there's no way to… wait, Aibou?"

The hollow nodded with a sneer, **"Yep. All this shit's made us equal, or haven't ya noticed?"**

Ichigo tried to remain calm enough to sense his own spirit energy and flinched when he did, "It feels almost like an…" He stumbled unable to speak the word.

**"Arrancar, Aibou. Yer trying ta say Arrancar."**

"But how…" Ichigo floundered and this time Zangestsu spoke up.

"When the Espada broke your horn you shattered your mask with your own Cero."

"I did what?"

**"Yeh heard him Aibou, ya broke yer own hollow mask. Even if it was on accident it still comes ta the same thing."**

"Wait, but I don't have a mask!" Ichigo exclaimed.

"It shattered when you hit the ground," Zangestsu commented,"But I wouldn't be so ready to say you don't have one." He pointed at Ichigo's forehead tiredly, "It's already coming back."

"What?! How?"

Zangestsu produced a small mirror and handed it to the frantic boy who grabbed it and stared at his reflection his mouth hanging open, and his eyes filled with panic.

"I… I've got to go," he stuttered out before vanishing leaving his zanpakuto and hollow to look at each other with their own version of concern.

"I don't think anyone is taking this well," Zangetsu finally commented.

**"Who the hell would?"** the hollow said and began pacing in agitation. He began to head towards hysterics again as he felt the hollow mask continue forming on his own face under his hand.

\NMN/

Ichigo opened his eyes into the real world and desperately began clawing at the place where he knew the white bone mask was beginning to form until he was certain it was gone. The image in the mirror was terrifying. His right iris had been gold, and already black was creeping into his sclera, but that wasn't the worst of it. Not noticing the feeling, the mask had already spread across the right side of his forehead and over part of his hair.

_**'Ya know that's not going to work for long Aibou,'**_ he heard a voice echoing through his head more clearly than it had ever been before this as if their means of communication had gone from the quality of a two-way radio sounding as if his hollow was standing right next to him.

"Well I'll just have to keep doing it then," Ichigo muttered trying to sound stubborn instead of desperate.

"Keep doing what Ichigo?" the nervous voice of Inoue asked causing him to freeze.

"How long were you there?" he asked trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

"Oh I just got here," she said, "I wanted to let you know I finished healing Ishida and wanted to make sure you weren't hurt too."

"Oh uh, I'm fine." Ichigo said in a rush. There was no way the healer would miss the hole in his chest if she tried to heal him. Inoue looked at him in some sort of worry and fear, but didn't question him. He stood in a single fluid motion not noticing Orihime flinching back at his un-natural movement and he walked over to Ishida in such a smooth way he seemed to glide without noticing before coming to a stop to pick up his sword.

"Um… Ishida…I'm sorry you got hurt."  
>"Oh shut up Ichigo, I know that wasn't you," the Quincy said stiffly looking at the orange-head with a calculating look. "Are you really okay though?"<p>

"I uh… I think so," Ichigo said nervously and the Quincy nodded. In his eyes the nervousness was a normal reaction to nearly becoming a hollow.

"We should go back to Karakura after getting the others," Uryuu commented and Ichigo agreed.

"I'll go get Renji, Chad, and Rukia and send them your way," Ichigo said tightening his grip on his zanpakuto before continuing, "You should probably meet up with the others that have come here after that."

"Right." The Quincy nodded unsurprised that the boy thought he could take Yammy on his own, then frowned, "Can you find them?"

"Yeah they're over there a little over a mile away," Ichigo pointed in the exact direction of the others causing the Quincy's face to twitch in surprise.

"Since when can you sense reiatsu so well?"

"I uh… huh. Just now I guess?" He said curiously.

**_'That might be because of me,'_** the watery voice commented in his head.

Ichigo tensed with his head tilted then nodded,_'Explain later I guess,'_ before noticing Ishida staring at him.

"What was that Ichigo?"

"Oh, uh. I was talking to … Zangetsu," he quickly replied. "He doesn't know why I can either," he finished more smoothly.

_**'Nice save Aibou. Better practice that lying though. I think you'll need it a lot more now,'**_ his hollow laughed and Ichigo noticed his lips twitching up into a smile involuntarily. He quickly forced his mouth back into its usual scowl in worry then turned to Inoue, "Take care of them if they're hurt please."

She nodded and the group separated leaving Inoue with one thought, 'Was that really Kurosaki?'

\NMN/

When the others were out of sight Ichigo prepared himself to use shunpo but staggered after one step. 'What the?' He thought to himself. 'That was FAST.'

Ichigo closed his eyes and saw the reflection of himself snickering.

"What?"

_**'Yer so ridiculous Aibou. That wasn't just Shunpo, didn'tcha hear that static sound? That was shunpo AND sonido.'**_

Ichigo looked at the mirror image in surprise, "I can do both?"

**_'Looks like it baka-Aibou.'_**

"Hey I'm not stupid!" Ichigo said finding himself wanting to growl in annoyance.

**_'Riiiiight. Better calm down baka-Aibou, yer making our mask come back faster,'_** he commented and pointed at Ichigo.

Ichigo cursed, "How can I not FEEL that?"

The hollow shrugged, **_'Because it's supposed to be there now baka-Aibou, that's my guess.'_**

Ichigo opened his eyes and clawed the mask off of his face again panting harshly as the bone dissolved into the air. "What are we going to do?" he whimpered. "They'll kill me if they find out I'm a hollow!"

**_'Arrancar.'_**

"That's even worse!" his scream came out in a vague double tone and he clamped his mouth shut eyes wide.

_'CALM DOWN ICHIGO,'_ Zangetsu's voice boomed through his psyche and Ichigo collapsed to a sitting position. _'One step at a time. First we save your friends, THEN we worry about our fate. You don't know Soul Society will try to kill you yet, and assuming so will only make you lose your focus.'_

Ichigo nodded slowly, "Right…" He stood up with the same flowing motion from earlier and clawed bits of the already forming mask off of his face. With a deep breath he started forward again, this time staying mostly calm when he moved faster than he had ever gone before. When he arrived he saw Chad and Renji fighting a far stronger released form of Yammy. He took in the 0 on the Espada's shoulder and quickly understood why he had felt such a massive change in the man's strength.

"Hey Yammy," He said trying to stay calm as he scratched a fragment of his mask off of his face that had started to form again.

Yammy and the others turned in surprise having not even noticed the boy arrive.

Yammy was the first to speak with a laugh, "You dare come here when you've lost your reiatsu like that?"

Ichigo paused and received an answer before he could ask, **_'I'm holding in yer reiatsu Aibou. If they felt it now they'd know instantly. Go have some fun, lord knows we need to let some stress off.'_**

A feral smile inched across his face and he was entirely unable to tell if it was his own, his hollow's, or both. "Oh I think I'll be fine Yammy," he commented barely containing a bubbling laugh that he could identify as his hollow's. "It's you who should be worried," he stated like it was the most basic fact in the world. Yammy felt adrenaline rush through his veins at Ichigo's statement, but ignored it opening his mouth to say something which ended up being a pained roar. Before he had even managed to speak Ichigo had cut off one of his legs. Within the blink of an eye it happened again and Yammy stumbled in surprise. Ichigo was glad for his speed when he realized that none of the people there could see him moving and thus couldn't see him scraping off his mask each time he attacked. Apparently using his powers to fight brought the mask out significantly faster. He turned to the others who seemed shocked by his speed, "I'll explain later." His hollow cackled,******_'Liar,'_** as Ichigo continued, "You guys go ahead and meet up with the others and take Rukia to get healed. I'll be there when I finish up here." Renji seemed about to protest, but Ichigo's mention of Rukia's state changed his mind. He walked over to Rukia and picked her up, "Be careful Kurosaki," he said roughly and started to shunpo in the direction of Ishida and Orihime.

Chad turned and began to follow with one last statement, "I trust you Ichigo."

After they left Ichigo turned to Yammy with a harsh sigh. He hated the idea of taking advantage of his trusting friend, but there was no way he could continue to fight Yammy while hiding the fact that he was clawing the mask off. He also was somewhat curious if Yammy would listen to him long enough to talk.

_'After cutting off his legs I doubt he will be very accommodating Ichigo,'_ Zangetsu replied humorously.

'Yeah probably… trying won't hurt though.'

_**'Suit yerself Aibou, just dun get us all killed,'**_ Ichigo's hollow snarked.

"So… Yammy, I was wondering if you would be willing to talk," Ichigo said in what he hoped was a placating tone.

"You cut off my fucking legs brat! You're dead!" Yammy managed to pull himself to his remaining feet and began charging up a cero unable to reason through his anger.

Ichigo grit his teeth in annoyance and muttered, "Well there went my chance at asking for information." Yammy released the cero and Ichigo simply moved away from it before leaping forward to attack. This time when the burbling laughter tugged at his lips he let it loose without noticing, and the sound was enough to make Yammy pause for a moment. Ichigo cut off one of Yammy's arms, and then suddenly what was happening caught up with him as he realized he was laughing uncontrollably. The sound chilled him to the bone, but he couldn't stop.

"What the hell is wrong with you brat?" Yammy asked reproachfully as he held his arm in pain.

The fact that even Yammy was disturbed was enough to cut the stream of laughter off leaving only the short echo from it. Ichigo stood trying to recover himself then answered slowly, "I – We," he corrected himself referring to himself, Zangetsu and his hollow without thinking about how it would sound, "We don't really know what's going on with me or any of us actually. There's a theory of course." He paused and turned towards Yammy gesturing towards his mask helplessly which had continued to form from fighting, "It's why I wanted to try talking to you."

Yammy raised an eyebrow, "What's your point brat? Don't you usually fight with one of those?" Ichigo sighed and rain his hand through his sweaty hair wondering why Yammy wasn't trying to kill him, but deciding not to like this 'gift horse' in the mouth. "One second Yammy, I think I can show you what I'm trying to explain."

_'Hey Hollow could you-'_

**_'Yeah, yeah on it. Keep yer pants on.'_**

A moment later the skin began drawing back from the centre of Ichigo's chest revealing the fist-sized gaping hole that passed through it.

Yammy blinked in surprise as the skin pulled back over the hole as if it was never there and then burst out laughing, "Oh man this is rich. The shinigami boy became what he was fighting! Aizen would love to hear that. Guess I'll have to settle for knocking you out for now so he can take a look at you."

Ichigo found himself literally growling before forcing out the words, "NOT the right answer fat-ass." He suddenly leapt forward and he realized he wasn't the one controlling his body right now even if he could still see.

_'Hollow?'_ He asked suddenly scared.

**"Busy Aibou,"** the words snapped out from his own lips with an obvious double voice, **"We can't have Aizen knowing this right now and ya know that."**

_'But-'_

**"Ya don't have it in ye ta kill right now 'n you know it, so I'm doin' it for ya."**

Ichigo fell silent for a moment, _'Surely there's another way.'_

Without warning Ichigo felt himself rocket forward and then stop with his sword impaled through Yammy's skull like a hot knife through butter. His arm then wrenched it free and jumping back to land.

**"Look Aibou, that naïve thought process is gonna get us all killed real fast."** Ichigo felt control slide subtly back to him, **_'So you better wise up quick before we get stabbed in the back.'_**

Ichigo looked back at Yammy and nodded his head slowly with regret. As much as he understood his hollow's reasoning, he just hoped that the day it became necessary to follow through with such a thing never came.

**A/N:** Hey everybody, hope you all enjoyed it so far. I did my best to edit it, but I don't have anyone to beta so hopefully I didn't miss too much. If you notice any mistakes let me know and I'll do my best to fix them. This includes spelling, grammar, obvious repetition of the same word, etc.

Aside from that, I'm having a surprising amount of fun writing this, and I hope you all enjoy it. Reviews would be lovely so I can see what you all think! ^_^

-Laz

Edited: 8/25/13


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

Update: 8/25/13

Spoken:

Zangetsu

**Hollow**

_Thought:_

_Zangetsu_

**_Hollow_**

Ichigo clawed the mask off realizing that the longer it stayed on the harder it was to get off and began to worry even more. "How the hell am I going to hide this?!" he said pacing back and forth too nervous to re-join anyone else yet.

_'I don't believe it will be able to show in your human body since it is merely your soul that has changed and not your body,'_ Zangetsu mused.

_'But my injuries transfer,'_ Ichigo pointed out unhappily.

_'Yes, but that is somewhat different. Your human body has no way to create a mask for itself. Somewhat like how your sword cannot show up in your human form. Souls become shinigami and hollows. The living do not.'_

_'What about the… the hole?'_ he said uncomfortably.

_'That too shouldn't cause any trouble I would think, since it is technically a part of your spirit as a hollow. It is not an injury.'_

This wasn't entirely comforting, but Ichigo tried to ignore it for the moment, _'When I leave my body won't the mask already be formed though?'_

_'I would think so, but at the moment I cannot think of a way to avoid that.'_

_'I wish I had someone else to talk to,_' Ichigo sighed wearily and sank into the sand unconsciously scratching the place where his mask always began to form raw.

**_'What about that crazy bastard with the candy shop?'_** Ichigo's hollow commented.

_'Urahara? I'm surprised you trust him.'_

**_'Yeh stupid Aibou? He may be a crazy bastard, but everythin' he does has a purpose and he's never done anythin' ta hurt'cha yet.'_**

_'I… I guess so,'_ Ichigo thought pensively unsure if giving him an inner hollow in the first place counted as harm.

**_'And anyway he knows all that science shit we'd never be able to figure out.'_**

He had a point.

When Ichigo regrouped with the others he was more than a little distracted so he didn't know what all was going on, though he did catch that the shinigami had been called back from their attack on Hueco Mundo to regroup. Apparently Aizen had not acted as they had expected and had pulled out of the human world for some reason. Barely managing to dodge Unohana Ichigo slipped into the garganta. He walked forward on a smooth walkway of reiatsu that had been created for everyone to cross quickly on and then stepped out into the human world into the basement of Urahara's shop with some surprise. He hadn't expected the shinigami to still be cooperating with a supposed traitor, but this made things all the easier since he could stick around after everyone had left.

As the rest of the people came behind him and began discussing what to do now he began to feel uncomfortable, and the longer time passed the more the feeling grew, seeping through him and centring around his chest. _'What the-'_ Ichigo thought as it continued to intensify, but to his surprise he got an answer.

**_'Aibou… Aibou I'm so…'_** his hollow panted searching for the word that had never before applied to him, **_'So hungry.'_**

Ichigo stiffened in sudden understanding and horror. He was hungry… famished really. And he was a hollow surrounded by people with strong spirits. He scratched desperately at his mask as it tried to spread across his face quickly and he realized his mouth was watering. He sat down quietly without the others noticing and continued to scratch away while trying to FORCE the hunger back.

_'Not hungry. Not going to eat them. They're friends. Not hungry. They smell SO GOOD. NO! Not eating them. Noteatingthem. Notthem. Eatingthem.'_

_'ICHIGO!'_ Zangetsu's voice roared through his head causing him to snap out of it for a moment.

_'Zan…getsu?'_ he said his mind tired from fighting his hunger on top of everything else that had happened so far.

_'Hollows work on instinct. Yours has already told you that before, you know that.'_

_'Right…'_ Ichigo muffled a moan when his stomach growled and tried to stay focused, wondering where this was going.

_'If you attack any of these people you will be killed,'_ Zangetsu snapped more bluntly than he usually would.

As if what Zangetsu said was exactly what he needed to hear the hunger faded back to a more manageable degree and he sighed in relief. Of course hollows don't want to die. His survival instinct was the best way to restrain himself right now.

"Ichigo?" a voice asked and he looked over scratching himself subconsciously by this point.

"Orihime. Hey what's up," he schooled his face into a slight smile and she smiled back causing him to relax.

"Oh I was about to leave for now and wanted to know if you would like to walk back with us since the others have all left," she gestured towards Toshiro and Matsumuto who had appeared at some point during the chaos. "They're going to be staying with me to protect me since transferring me to soul society isn't…" her eyes shifted nervously, "isn't safe for me."

He nodded in understanding still scratching, "That makes sense."

"Kurosaki why are you constantly scratching yourself?" Toshiro asked flatly.

"What? Oh this? I uh… kinda got a rash," he finished trying to look embarrassed and Toshiro snorted. "Anyway, I think I'll stay back a bit longer to get the rash looked at."

The three nodded and headed up the ladder before Ichigo felt it was safe to talk to Urahara.

"So a rash huh?" The quirky man asked eyeing him seriously "Is this 'rash' why I can't feel a drop of reiatsu from you?"

Ichigo tensed then forced himself to relax and try to trust the man, "Er… not quite Urahara. I… I think I'm in trouble."

The man tilted his head like a cat then flipped open his fan to cover part of his face, "What kind of trouble Kurosaki?"

"What kind of seals do you have around here?"

"Well I had to make them strong for you and your insane training, so I'd say that they're probably some of the strongest you could get Ichi," the man said playfully.

Ichigo nodded and with a mental cue his hollow released his hold on their reiatsu causing it to flair massively and nearly knock the other man down. Ichigo reached up and felt the mask begin to form quickly across his eye and now that he was letting it he realized it covered his eye and part of his skull with a broken part of his horn from the hollow transformation. With another mental request his hollow caused the skin to recede from the hole in his chest again. Ichigo focused on Urahara waiting warily for some form of response.

\NMN/

Kisuke observed the boy as the partial mask formed over the red-head's face and the hole was revealed in his chest leading his suspicion that had arisen at the change in the feel of the boy's reiatsu to be confirmed. He stared in wonder and a bit of disgust at the mismatched eyes of the boy that had come to him so long ago to try to get power. The brown eye held worry and the sickening gold and black eye surrounded by the mask seemed to bore into his soul.

"It would seem you DO have a problem Kurosaki!" he said allowing his flamboyance to cover his emotions.

The boy's face quirked into a half grin that looked unnatural on him before he spoke his voice clearly duel toned, **"Gee thanks capt'n obvious, now could ya stop messin' around and be serious here? We ain't here to for yer entertainment ya know."**

"Would I be correct in assuming that I am speaking to his hollow then?" Urahara asked, with his eyebrow raised.

"Actually, it's really both of us I think," Ichigo said nervously despite the still remaining half grin, "We're sort of… sharing?"

This time both of Urahara's eyebrows shot up and his expression turned serious, "Oh that certainly is interesting. Do you know who is in control at the moment?"

"I uh… I'd say I am, but I don't think that's entirely true," Ichigo said before his face split entirely into a shark-like grin chilling Kisuke to the bone.

"I see. Well then Ichigo and Hollow of Ichigo," Urahara addressed them each respectively, "What do _you_ think happened to you?"

Ichigo shifted uncomfortably under the man's gaze, "Well they have a theory."

"Well by all means, I promise I won't laugh."

A growl of annoyance slipped from Ichigo's mouth, **"Zangetsu and I think Ichigo and I are an arrancar now."**

****"Wonderful guess!" Urahara cooed, "If it were right though you'd be dead where you stand!"

"Why?" Ichigo asked in confusion, "I don't see what else I _could_ be."

"Arrancar are severely injured when their masks are even cracked. To break it off entirely would erase them. Yet here you are."

**"Then what the fuck are we?"** the hollow asked also sounding confused.

"I have no clue!" Urahara chirped enthusiastically, "This is entirely unprecedented!"

Ichigo felt his had twitch and then suddenly he was moving forward and pinning Urahara to the ground by his throat with it. Urahara stared up stunned as a split tone hissed from Ichigo's throat, **"Yeh piss me off ya know that shinigami? This is serious, and if ya don't start acting that way I'll kill ya. I ain't Ichigo and ye better get that through yer skull."**

Urahara's eyes light up in curiosity as if he didn't even notice his situation, "You're fast! Was that sonido and shunpo? I couldn't even see you move!"

The hollow grit his teeth in annoyance and barely restrained himself from slamming the man's head into the floor since they needed him, **"Yeah? So what?"** He slid out of full control of Ichigo's body and waited impatiently for a reply.

Ichigo backed off of Urahara sheepishly, "Sorry he's a bit…"

_'Hot-headed and irrational.'_

"Hot-headed," Ichigo finished instead.

"No problem Kurosaki," Urahara said roughly while rubbing his throat tenderly.

**_'STOP STALLING!'_** the hollow growled in Ichigo's mind.

"So you were saying?" Ichigo asked, sitting back on his heels as Urahara sat up.

"Well this is mostly theoretical, but I don't think arrancar are truly part shinigami as they claim. They can't use kido, and their swords don't function at all like a shinigami's. When sealed their swords have no extra abilities. Also they can't use shunpo either, they stick to the hollow version sonido. Why they gain a sword at all is still a bit of a mystery to me, but I feel it is just a step in hollow evolution that can occur. It was probably found on accident too, and before now it was not considered a favourable option since most natural arrancar were incomplete and were thus unstable. With Aizen's intervention the option of becoming an arrancar has become far more appealing."

Urahara stood up and Ichigo followed suit, "The Vizard however, are definitely part hollow, though they are obviously dominantly shinigami since their capacity to use hollow skills is largely limited. It varies from person to person among the existing Vizard, but it still holds true."

He turned to Ichigo, "You on the other hand have done what no other Vizard has and given your hollow instincts free reign after very nearly dying, and I think it is that which changed you. You are a hollow, yet you can use shinigami abilities, so you cannot be an arrancar. You clearly can't qualify as a shinigami or a Vizard anymore either, so I'd say you are now what the arrancar _claim_ to be: a hollow with shinigami abilities."

Ichigo stared at Urahara for a moment then sighed tiredly, "So where does that leave me then?"

"Well I need to check you out, but I don't have the supplies yet. I'd say return to school for now and see what happens. If you have any symptoms report them. I'll let you know when I have all of the things I need to check you out."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Ichigo asked nervously.

"Nothing is certain right now, but I think you'll be safer in your body than you would be outside of it right now."

"If you say so…" Ichigo's attention drifted for a moment, _'Zangetsu, do you agree?'_

_'I can't think of a better idea at the moment. If it becomes necessary you can always stay here.'_

Ichigo nodded and turned to Urahara, "Alright, hopefully you'll get everything soon. I'm going to head home." He reached up and cracked his mask with the hilt of Tensa Zangetsu before tearing it off. When the mask dissolved he collapsed slightly panting as Urahara watched.

_'That could be problematic,'_ Kisuke pondered as the boy stood up with a slight wobble as he began scratching his face again. "Ichigo, can you release your Bankai?"

"I… uh…" Ichigo's face twisted in confusion, "No… I don't think I can."

Kisuke nodded, "I'll add that to the research list. Now go get some rest."

The boy nodded and suddenly Kisuke felt the mass of reiatsu collapse into Ichigo and disappear. He raised an eyebrow, _'There's no way Kurosaki can do that on his own… maybe his hollow?'_

Ichigo headed to the ladder and Kisuke looked on as he climbed up awkwardly holding his zanpakuto with barely any of his uniform remaining despite the fact that it should have been self-repairing by now, _'He's going to need a sheath… and something about his uniform isn't right.'_ He shook his head to bring himself out of his thoughts and headed off to call in some favours so he could start getting what he needed.

\NMN/

Ichigo left the store and quickly made his way to his house. After climbing through his window he collapsed into his body and winced as his injuries transferred in a lesser form to it. He took a deep breath then sighed in relief. The hunger was barely even noticeable in his body. He stood up and stretched before heading to the bathroom. He pulled out the first aid kit and began caring for the wounds he had left with a practiced hand from years of fights and being brought up by a doctor. When he finished he sighed and packed up the box before returning it to the cabinet then he straightened up and eyed the mirror suspiciously. Zangetsu had said nothing would give away the change, but he wasn't so sure. He slid off his shirt and leaned closer to the mirror to get a better look. His eyes widened; there, though barely visible at all was a slightly lighter ring of skin on the boundaries of where his hole would be in his spirit form.

_'Zangetsu?'_ Ichigo queried and could practically feel the older man shrug.

_"I don't know Ichigo. This is new to me too."_

Ichigo eyed his reflection nervously and pulled his shirt back on quickly. _If I'm careful no one will notice,_ he thought to himself and quickly headed to his room before falling on his bed and letting out a tired sigh.

_"Are you going to be okay Ichigo?"_ Zangetsu asked in an uncharacteristically worried tone.

Ichigo shrugged and held up his hand in front of his face staring at it for a moment, "I just killed two people today Zangetsu. Am I supposed to be okay?"

**_'Aww get over it Aibou. They were trying ta kill ya I don't see what yer problem is.'_**

Ichigo's face twisted into a pained expression and he grit his teeth, "You don't know what you're saying Hollow. I've always cherished lives, you're different."

The hollow cackled, **_'Different how Aibou? You're a hollow, I'm a hollow. We share a body. I was created from you. Both of us now hunger for-'_**

"Shut up!" Ichigo sat straight up in bed, "I am NOT like you."

**_'Aww come on Ichi, you know you're hungry. It wouldn't be that hard to find a weak spirit and-'_**

"SHUT UP! I WILL NOT eat a spirit!" his voice started out as a bellow and then became uncertain, "I'll be fine. I can just ignore it."

Suddenly someone knocked on the door, "Ichigo? Are you okay?"

Ichigo's head jerked towards the door, "Yeah. Yeah I'm fine Yuzu."

"What were you yelling about?" Yuzu's voice came through the door sounding worried. Ichigo fought with his expression for a moment until he thought he seemed calm and then walked to the door, "Nothing important Yuzu, why don't you head back to bed?"

She gave him a searching look, "If you say so nii-chan." She turned towards her room and Ichigo closed the door with a sigh and slid to the floor with his back to it burying his hands in his hair and pulling at it.

"What am I going to do?" he moaned so quietly it was barely audible.

_'For now you need to focus on acting like nothing is out of the ordinary. Urahara will look at you soon. But first of all you need rest. You are stressed and I know it will be hard, but you must try.'_

For once the hollow remained silent leaving Ichigo to wonder what he was thinking. Ichigo released his hold on his hair and breathed out deeply before wearily getting up and heading towards his bed.

**'_It's already raining. Tonight is going to be a long night I can just tell,' _**Ichigo barely heard as he finally drifted towards sleep.

**AN:** SO VERY SORRY this took so long to update. I've had a bunch of crap come up with school and then my cat that I've had for about half of my nearly 21 years died. We ended up having to get a new one because the house just felt so empty. Q.Q

Anyway, I know it's a tad short, but I felt that was a good place to stop for now. Sorry if I made a bunch of errors I didn't do a thorough look-over because I wanted to hurry up and get it posted so you lovely people wouldn't have to wait.

As for a question I got, I figure I should clarify: No this will not be Yaoi. I don't feel comfortable writing it since it would probably come out like crap. I have no problem with guyxguy guyxgirl girlxgirl or hell even harem so long as it is WELL WRITTEN and BELIEVABLE, so since I don't think I could do that... I'm just avoiding it all together. I don't think it would fit my setting anyway since I'm trying to keep Ichigo and his hollow canon-ish personality-wise, and in canon face it - even if the two liked each other they'd be so in denial they wouldn't realize it.

Hugs for everyone that was patient :)

Edited: 8/25/13


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

Edited: 8/25/13

Spoken:

Zangetsu

**Hollow**

_Thought:_

_Zangetsu_

**_Hollow_**

"IIIIIICHIIIIIIGOOOO…"

Ichigo looked up tiredly from his desk to see his father launch himself through the door into a flying kick that landed him straight out the window Ichigo had habitually left open because of this.

"Planting traps! I have nothing left to teach you my son!" A voice called weakly through the window.

Ichigo rolled his eyes and then slumped back in his chair with a groan. He had woken up so many times he had lost count, and had finally given up to try and catch up on his school work. He stood up with a long stretch before shuffling over to the window to close it. Rubbing his eyes he turned to his closet and pulled out his school uniform before heading to the bathroom for a shower.

When he exited slightly more awake he went back to his room to grab his school work and put it in his school bag.

_'Well, here goes nothing.'_

_'Just act normal Ichigo it will be fine,'_ Zangetsu said calmly.

**_'Ha. Ichigo acting normal.'_**

Ichigo smirked slightly then slipped out of his room and headed to the kitchen.

"Morning Ichigo," Yuzu said with a bright smile, "Breakfast will be ready in a minute."

"Alright," Ichigo nodded and sat at the table with Karin and his somehow uninjured father.

"You look exhausted," Karin pointed out bluntly.

"Yeah," Ichigo nodded in agreement, "I had some trouble sleeping."

Karin looked at him suspiciously, but before she could ask anything further Yuzu was walking to the table with a cheery expression, "It's ready!" After placing the food on the table she sat down with the rest of them and everyone served themselves. Ichigo demolished his first plate hungrily and his second and third nearly as fast. It was when he began to reach for a forth helping that he noticed the others were looking at him oddly. His hand froze on its way to the serving spoon, "I… uh, I'm just really hungry today." He said then quickly picked up his plate and put it in the sink before bolting out the door. He raced away from the house unable to think clearly until a painful stitch in his side brought him to a halt. He leaned tiredly against a tree, panting harshly as he felt his stomach rebel. He never ate that much, not even at dinner, and his stomach wasn't happy about the sudden run after eating as much as he had. He gagged once unable to stop himself, and then the next thing he knew the harsh burning of what he had eaten made its way back up his throat as his stomach protested from the harsh treatment.

When his stomach had settled he found himself on all fours shaking like an exhausted animal. He leaned back away from the mess and then stood up with a wobble to move away from it. Leaning against another tree he took a water bottle from his bag unsteadily and rinsed his mouth before spitting the water out and taking a tentative sip to cool his raw throat. With a sigh he looked around and realized he was in a park and sighed in relief when he saw he was alone. He slouched down to the ground carefully and looked up at the sky through the tree limbs.

_'I wasn't hungry for food,'_ he finally thought wearily. _'I should have known that.'_

His stomach growled at him, empty again, _'Well… My body WAS hungry,'_ he corrected himself,_ 'but I didn't even notice when it became full. I was just mindlessly eating.'_

He waited for the inevitable jab from his hollow, but oddly it didn't come. Instead Zangetsu's calm voice echoed through his mind, _'You must be more careful Ichigo. You cannot allow yourself to lose control like that. Your instincts have become far more powerful now, and if you want to remain yourself you cannot give in to them. The results may be disastrous.'_

Ichigo nodded absent-mindedly still wondering what his hollow must be thinking, then in a quick motion he stood up and left the park without turning back to be reminded of his moment of weakness. He couldn't afford to be overcome by this. It was as he continued forward that his hollow finally made his move.

**_'Doin' a good job acting normal eh aibou.'_**

Ichigo winced visibly and everything that had happened threated to overwhelm him just from that simple phrase. He stumbled to a halt trying to fight off the feeling of drowning in helplessness.

"And what would _you_ do?" he asked, voice harsh.

A cackle burbled from his throat that wasn't his own, and his hollow spoke in an oddly normal voice, **"I would hardly count us as human anymore Aibou. This place is fer humans, we shouldn't stay here, and we can't go to soul society either. Where does that leave?"**

Ichigo shoved his hollow out of control wearily, "You mean Hueco Mundo."

**_'No shit Sherlock.'_**

Ichigo shook his head swiftly, "No, not if I can find a way to stay here. I have to protect my friends and family."

**_'Protect,'_** his hollow's voice echoed quietly through his head barely a whisper. **_'We could be the danger yer protecting them from ya know.'_**

Ichigo shook his head choosing to forcibly ignore his hollow, "You're just trying to mess with my head."

His hollow remained silent neither proving nor disproving Ichigo's statement. The red-head gave himself a quick shake before checking his phone for the time and cursing. He was late. After taking a moment to figure out where he was he sprinted off towards school.

Climbing a tree to scale the wall when he arrived, he landed lithely on the other side and brushed off his uniform. Before he was noticed by any of the attendance monitors he slipped into the school and allowed himself to catch his breath. After a few moments he headed to the shoe locker and left his shoes inside before he headed to his classroom. He slid the door open, wincing as it rattled loudly.

"Mr. Kurosaki, glad to see you decided to join us. May I ask your excuse for today?" the teacher said, displeasure radiating from her.

"Sorry, I had a stomach virus," he said with a wince, knowing that it was a common excuse he used when he needed to get out of class to kill hollows, though this time it was slightly based on the truth.

She rolled her eyes, "Why do I even bother anymore? Go sit down."

"Yes sensei," he said with a bow before turning towards his seat trying to ignore the looks his friends were giving him. Lunch was going to be interesting, he could already tell.

\NMN/

Ichigo sat with Chad, Inoue, and Ishida on the roof in a quiet circle as he picked at a rice-ball he had gotten for lunch. After what had happened that morning he was a bit wary of eating much. Finally when he paused to take a sip from his drink Ishida broke the awkward atmosphere with a cough, "So Ichigo, did you really have a stomach virus? I didn't feel any hollows this morning."

"Yeah I actually did," Ichigo said with a grimace, "Something I ate must not have agreed with me. I ended up sick in a park on the way to school."

"Ah," Ishida said as his nose wrinkled in disgust, "Well I hope it isn't contagious."

"Uryuu, don't be rude. Kurosaki doesn't feel well," Inoue chastised the Quincy.

The boy sniffed in distaste and returned to eating silently as Inoue continued, "So what do you think is going to happen now with Soul Society?"

Ichigo shrugged, "I guess they will have to try to figure out why Aizen left when he did and then go from there."

Orihime nodded, "I was wondering why he left too. I mean, maybe it was because you beat his strongest Espada?"  
>Ishida nodded, "That could make sense, but at the same time he didn't take Yammy with him, so obviously he didn't think he would be necessary for the fight in Karakura."<p>

Ichigo leaned back on the fence watching the clouds as he continued to nibble at his food, "Who knows. I'm just glad he stopped for now and everyone is safe."

"But for how long?" Chad finally spoke up, his comment voicing what each of them was really wondering.

**_'Maybe it was us.'_**

Ichigo tilted his head to the side somewhat confused, _'What do you mean?'_

**_'Maybe he knows what happened.'_**

Ichigo shook his head in denial, _'How could he? He wasn't even there.'_

Ichigo felt his own shoulders shrug and wondered if his hollow even noticed what he had done, **_'True, but I would still be careful.'_**

Ichigo nodded absent minded and then turned to his friends who were watching him and covered what he had been doing fairly easily, "Zangetsu isn't sure either. We should definitely still be careful until we figure out what happened."

The others nodded and continued in silence until the bell to return to class rang. They all stood up and began picking up their things.

\NMN/

When they turned to head in Ishida hung back for a moment then made up his mind, "Kurosaki, could you stay for a second?"

It took a lot of Ichigo's wavering self-control to keep himself from panicking before he turned to his friend with a calm face, "Sure, what's up?"

Ishida stared piercingly at the red-head as he pushed his glasses up his nose, "What is going on with you Ichigo? I can't feel your reiatsu at _all_. And before you try to bullshit me with some sort of excuse for being able to control it suddenly, I'll let you know it is _impossible_ to suddenly gain control of reiatsu for a normal person. With the sheer quantity of reiatsu you are constantly leaking I would venture to say you could _never_ learn control over yours."

Despite his efforts Ichigo paled several shades. He should have _known_ the Quincy would notice something. He turned away from the boy eyes wild as he tried to keep his breathing calm, _'What the FUCK do I do NOW?!'_

_'Do you trust him?'_

_'What… I uh… I guess?'_

_'Do you trust him to trust you?'_

Ichigo turned slightly towards the other boy who was watching him closely with something that resembled suspicion and… worry? He turned away again.

_'If you think he can keep your secret tell him. If not you will simply have to deal with his distrust.'_

**_'That and he'll probably hate ya,'_** his hollow pointed out with relish. **_'Still probably the safe thing to do.'_**

_'Shove it. He won't do anything bad.'_

**_'If something happens later I DID warn ya,'_** the hollow said in a patronizing tone.

Ichigo chewed on his lip for a moment before taking a deep breath and turning towards the other boy, "If you really want to know I'll need you to try your best to trust me. Meet me at Urahara's after school if you think you can. If you can't it would probably be better if you just don't know."

The Quincy stared at him intently, "I could get in trouble for knowing couldn't I?"

Ichigo nodded solemnly, "Yeah."

"How much."

"A lot."

Ichigo watched as he weighed the options then finally turned to him and he said curtly, "I'll be there."

Ichigo nodded, "Alright." Moments later the warning bell rang and they rushed back to class.

"What's up?" Inoue asked curiously before the teacher called the class to order.

Ishida shrugged nonchalantly, "Nothing important Orihime, don't worry."

She looked at him for a moment and then nodded slowly wanting to believe him. They turned to face the teacher as class resumed.

\NMN/

"Iiiiiiichiiiiiiigooooooo!" A voice called out and Ichigo stepped to the side and stuck out his arm, clothes-lining Keigo midway through his usual overly enthusiastic greeting.

As the boy collapsed weakly to the floor Ichigo sighed irritably, "You know, if I didn't know better I'd think my dad was related to you somehow."

He kept walking too tired to deal with his friend, and headed straight home before climbing through his window to avoid his family. With an exhausted yawn he put his bag down and flopped down onto his bed. Pulling out his phone he fumbled through the buttons setting an alarm before he allowed himself to slide slowly into a blissfully dreamless slumber.

Ichigo woke with a groan when his phone went off and he turned it off before sliding off the bed and stretching. With a yawn he turned on his light and winced as he felt a slight headache throbbing behind his right eye. He padded down the hall to the bathroom and popped a couple Ibeprophen before using the restroom and heading back to his room to retrieve his shoes. Pulling them on he slipped back out his window into the growing darkness not wanting to deal with his father at the moment.

With another stretch he set off heading towards Urahara's store at a light jog. When he reached the store he walked right in startling the people inside.

"Oh hello Ichigo!" Yoruichi said brightly, "Didn't notice you coming." She looked at him searchingly then to Urahara, then back to him, but Ichigo spoke up before she could say anything.

"Hey Yoruichi, I was going to use the training area with Ishida if you would like to come watch."

Yoruichi looked at him knowingly, "Ah sounds interesting! I'll be down in a few minutes if you want to warm up. You coming Urahara?"

"Sure," the man said practically beaming, "I wonder what they're planning."

Ichigo rolled his eyes and headed towards the two and headed towards the ladder.

"Oh by the way Ichigo I have Tessai down there at the moment if that's alright."

Ichigo thought for a moment then shrugged, "Sure, he can watch too."

**_'Yeh sure are trusting Aibou.'_**

_'And you really think those two wouldn't have found out? I barely stopped her from asking the question in front of the two kids he keeps around.'_

Ichigo knew his hollow was rolling his eyes without even looking and he shrugged, _'I'm doing what I can. It would help if you didn't constantly berate me you know.'_

**_'Aww, but where's tha fun in that?'_**

Ichigo snorted, _'Should have known.'_ He turned to the ladder and began the descent.

\NMN/

After reaching the bottom he looked around nervously not spotting or sensing Tessai yet, then walked over to a boulder and sat down before pulling out his substitute badge and taking a deep breath.

_'Remember, your survival instinct is the best way to control yourself.'_

Ichigo nodded nervously before pushing the badge against his chest. He felt the familiar feeling of his soul leaving his body before he found himself on his knees in agony as his mask practically burst free from his forehead and spread out to surround his eye and form the broken horn. When it finished the pain began to fade and he gasped in relief.

**_'What tha FUCK was that?'_**

_'It would seem my initial theory was incorrect. Being in your human body prevents the mask from spreading, but I think it causes you pain in the process of doing so. You noticed the headache earlier. I feel that was connected to this.'_

Ichigo nodded his head gingerly and carefully stood up while pulling the mask off gently. When he lowered his arm he heard a jingle and looked down to see a simple black chain going diagonally across his chest. With sudden understanding he reached over his shoulder where his shikai usually rested and felt the hilt of Tensa Zangetsu. Sliding the chain over his head he pulled the weapon off and looked at the sheath. It was a simple black, just like the blade, and was entirely unadorned. He tilted his head looking at it while continuing to scratch at his forehead.

_'You needed a sheath since you cannot change me back,'_ Zangetsu explained before he could even ask. Ichigo nodded and slid the weapon back over his head accidentally tearing part of the top of his uniform like it was tissue paper. His eyes widened, "What the-" he watched as the uniform seemed to strain to reform itself. _'What's up with that?'_

_'I'm still trying to work it out, but it seems I will not be able to continue forming the shinigami uniform for much longer. I will figure something out before then.'_

Ichigo nodded, after all that had happened the possibility of losing his clothes while fighting wasn't a huge blip on his worry radar, and he trusted Zangetsu to figure things out.

Suddenly he smelled something that smelled decadent and it took him a moment to realize he hadn't found the best food on Earth; he had only located Tessai moving towards him. Mentally repeating 'They'll kill me,' like a prayer he managed to bring himself under control before the man grew too close. Wiping saliva he hadn't even know he had released from his chin he continued to scratch at his forehead as the man rounded the rock to greet him with a silent nod. Ichigo nodded back and released a sigh, "Hey Tessai." He waved at the man and walked over to join him before heading toward an open space with him. Not long after he heard the loud voices of Yoruichi and Ishida. He turned to look at the entrance and saw the two climbing down the ladder with Urahara between the two. When they grew closer he noticed the Quincy's disgruntled expression and realised that the woman was picking on him about his attempt to go down the ladder first.

"Look, it was simply and attempt to get down the ladder faster since you two are so slow," he said stiffly.

"I _still_ say you were trying to get a look at my ass," she said bumping her hip into him and causing him to stumble slightly.

"No blaming him though, after all he is a man," Urahara said smoothly while his fan fluttered in front of his face.

"You're wrong, just let it drop," Ishida said in frustration, face turning beet red from the implications.

"Oh but you're sooo easy to tease," Yoruichi said with a playful wink.

"Give it up Ishida, you've given them ammo. It's too late for you," Ichigo pointed out knowing well how the two could be.

"Aww look at the little boy trying to give his buddy advice even though he's a virgin too. He knows ALL about seeing my body," she leaned over seductively, "Isn't that right Ichigo?"

Ichigo grit his teeth and despite knowing better went off on her, "Will you just shove it? It wasn't my damn fault you're the one that changed from being a cat without putting on clothes!"

"Ooooh Ichi's in a bad mood today. Fine, I'll leave you be this once, but you better explain why I can't sense you at all." She tilted her head in a way that was reminiscent of her cat form, "And why your sword is in Bankai. Is that a sheath? But you're not in your clothes for Bankai."

"Hoooold on," Ichigo said waving his hands in front of himself. "One question at a time."

She pouted biting her lip slightly, "Fine then."

Ichigo looked at the false sky for a moment before releasing a sigh and meeting their gaze, "Well the first one is easiest to answer, but first I'll have to answer a question you didn't know you needed to ask."

Ishida nodded curiously, "We're listening."

"Eh… well, watching really. I have to show you. Brace yourself," he said remembering what had happened last time, "And try not to panic."

**_'Or kill us.'_**

_'That too.'_

**_'Ready then?'_**

_'Go for it,' _Ichigo closed his eyes.

Like a small bomb Ichigo's bottled up reiatsu exploded out of him violently and despite their preventative efforts the group stumbled.

"Damn!" Yoruichi spat as she steadied herself watching as the white substance pouring out of the boy's forehead, surrounding his eye socket and forming a partial horn before solidifying into the bone that formed a hollow mask.

Ishida looked at the boy piercingly as he opened his eyes and he barely suppressed a gasp from the oddity of Ichigo's miss-matched eyes. He had seen him in his mask before, but somehow this still managed to get to him, "Your mask changed?" He asked, knowing that it couldn't be that simple – not with how distinctly hollow-like his friend's reiatsu now felt – and he felt a horrible sinking feeling in his gut.

"I… well there is that too." Ichigo paused nervously wondering what their reaction would be.

_'Somehow this was easier when it was just Urahara.'_

**_'Well he's a mad scientist. Anything that's out of the ordinary is like a present to him. Yeh know he wouldn't try to kill ya.'_**

Ichigo closed his eyes again not able to watch the others' expressions, _'Well then, whenever you're ready.'_

**_'Already on it yeh wimp. If yer gonna tell 'em might as well watch.'_**

_'Oh and PLEASE don't do anything to set them off.'_

**_'I'm not suicidal ya know. Yer the one that decided to tell the one that despises hollows more than anything.'_**

Ichigo snorted and opened his eyes only to find a brightly glowing blue arrow pointed directly at his head.

_'Well fuck.'_

\NMN/

**AN:** Uh… whoops cliff-hanger? I swear it wasn't on purpose, but I still figure it's a good place to stop.

Also, thanks for all the reviews and subscriptions thus far. Knowing I have so many people I could piss off if I give up is a very good motivator to continue.

To answer a couple questions/comments:

~ Neither Ichigo nor his Hollow are fully in charge. I'll explain that more fully in upcoming chapters.

~ My opinion (based on the canon) is that he is two in one because Zangetsu is not capable of taking control of his body. Despite this, yes he does have two other people in his mind. Confusing? Blame Kubo.

~ Truthfully I've never really been able to see the Arrancar as "part-shinigami." They seem so different from anything we know about the shinigami. So they have a sword. So what? They don't act in any way like those of the shinigami. As for how the shinigami can become part hollow: we have an instance in canon where a shinigami is overtaken by a hollow: Kaien Shiba. So a shinigami _can_ become a hollow. They _can_ be corrupted by the enemy. Being a shinigami doesn't make you hollow immune. After all what is a hollow, but a corrupted "plus" soul?

Hollows on the other hand cannot become shinigami because they must be a "plus" soul before it becomes possible (I say this because thus far canon implies this). They need to be purified for that. Purification is also an important point: the shinigami aren't trying to take over the hollows (which is what hollows do when they eat a soul), they are simply freeing the souls in a hollow to pass on to Soul Society or Hell. There is no such thing as a shinigami "corrupting" a hollow leading it to become a shinigami.

**AN**: Uh… whoops cliff-hanger? I swear it wasn't on purpose, but I still figure it's a good place to stop.

Also, thanks for all the reviews and subscriptions thus far. Knowing I have so many people I could piss off if I give up is a very good motivator to continue.

Bear with me I'm trying to get my page breaks edited in because FF hates me.

To answer a couple questions/comments:

~ Neither Ichigo nor his Hollow are fully in charge. I'll explain that more fully in upcoming chapters.

~ My opinion (based on the canon) is that he is two in one because Zangetsu is not capable of taking control of his body. Despite this, yes he does have two other people in his mind. Confusing? Blame Kubo.

~ Truthfully I've never really been able to see the Arrancar as "part-shinigami." They seem so different from anything we know about the shinigami. So they have a sword. So what? They don't act in any way like those of the shinigami. As for how the shinigami can become part hollow: we have an instance in canon where a shinigami is overtaken by a hollow: Kaien Shiba. So a shinigami can become a hollow. They can be corrupted by the enemy. Being a shinigami doesn't make you hollow immune. After all what is a hollow, but a corrupted "plus" soul?

Hollows on the other hand cannot become shinigami because they must be a "plus" soul before it becomes possible (I say this because thus far canon implies this). They need to be purified for that. Purification is also an important point: the shinigami aren't trying to take over the hollows (which is what hollows do when they eat a soul), they are simply freeing the souls in a hollow to pass on to Soul Society or Hell. There is no such thing as a shinigami "corrupting" a hollow leading it to become a shinigami.

Edited: 8/25/13


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Edited: 8/25/13

Spoken

**Hollow**

Zangetsu

Normal

_Thought_

_'Normal'_

**_'Hollow'_**

_'Zangetsu'_

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

_ 'Don't move. Let him make the first move.'_

**_'Though if it's ta release the arrow I'd still move ta get tha fuck out of the way.'_**

Ichigo stood stock still not even paying attention to the two talking in his head eyes locked on the arrow tip.

"Answer truthfully. Is this Ichigo I am talking to? You may move your head."

Ichigo nodded cautiously.

"You have a hole in your chest," Ishida stated with a forced calm, "Am I correct in assuming that it is a hollow hole?"

Ichigo nodded slowly and winced as the arrow was drawn back more tautly.

"I want you to remove your sword and lay it on the ground and put your hands on your head. Then," he spat, "I want you to explain to me why I shouldn't kill you _right now._"

Ichigo carefully removed the sword and sheath making sure not to do anything to set the Quincy off further and placed it on the ground before standing back up and laying his hands on his head.

Ichigo took a calming breath trying to collect his thoughts, "Okay, Urahara explained it to me like this: I am a hollow that is part shinigami, not like the arrancar. He thinks they aren't really part shinigami. Ask him later if you want to know since I still don't really get it. Ulquiorra accidentally made me break my own mask so I guess that keeps me in this more human form." He winced inwardly at how unnatural that sounded, "Kind of like an arrancar I guess. Urahara is planning to run some tests soon to get more information."

Ishida looked at him with an unreadable expression not loosening his hold on the drawn arrow, "So you are mostly a hollow now?"

Ichigo shrugged awkwardly with his hands on his head, "I guess so. I'm still me though."

"So you feel the need to consume spirits," Ishida said harshly finally getting to his point.

Ichigo opened and shut his mouth a couple times before he slumped, his voice coming out in a whisper, "Yes."

"Have you attacked anyone yet?"

"No. I can keep it back knowing that everyone here could kill me."

"So you can't consciously control it."

"Not yet no."

"Ichigo, I want you to think carefully right now. Do you think you are a danger to people?"

"I…" Ichigo paused, "I don't think I am right now."

"But you could be?"

Ichigo nodded his expression pained.

The Quincy lowered his bow surprising everyone, "I will be keeping track of you from now on. If I think you have become a danger and there is no shinigami nearby I will _put you down._ I know you, and I know you would never want to harm much less kill helpless people. If it comes to that point even erasing you from existence would be mercy."

Ichigo finally met Ishida's eyes feeling oddly relieved, "Thank you."

Uryuu nodded, "I'm just doing my job."

"Weeeeell, now that that's out of the way shouldn't you tell him about your little cohabitant?" Urahara chirped.

**_'Finally.'_**

"Ichigo, what is he talking about?" Uryuu asked eyes narrowing dangerously.

Ichigo winced, "I – uh. You know how sometimes you see me talking to myself? Well it isn't always Zangetsu."

Ichigo watched as the Quincy's hand twitched towards his cross and knew he was walking a fine line, "And who would you be talking to then?"

"He's been there for a long time now actually, but I didn't want to worry anyone."

"Spit it out Kurosaki."

"My inner hollow," Ichigo muttered unable to meet his friend's eyes.

Uryuu's eyes widened, "Your inner… How long?"

"He's probably been there since I regained my powers. I nearly became a hollow trying to get them back. I think some part of me changed beyond the point of return and there was no turning it back."

Ichigo felt his shoulders shake and his lips quirk up into a slight smile. He allowed his hollow full control of his body while keeping watch warily. This caused his mouth split into a warped grin followed by the chilling duel toned laugh of his hollow, **"Ooooh Aibou, and here I thought ya didn't know."** Suddenly Ichigo's body leapt back barely dodging multiple arrows, **"Hey hey hey! I didn't even do anything yet sheesh."**

"Ichigo's hollow I presume?" Ishida asked coldly with his bow drawn again.

**"Yeah so? We share now got a problem?"**

"He is allowing this?" the Quincy's eyebrows shot up in disbelief.

**"Guess he figured showing's easier than tellin'. Though he's not entirely in control no matter what he'd like."**

"Wait, so if Ichigo isn't entirely in control then that means you aren't either," Ishida's eyes narrowed analytically.

**"Nope."**

"So then who has more control?"

The hollow snickered, **"Who knows."** He shrugged lazily and leaned back against a rock, **"By this point it doesn't really matter anymore. We're so close now neither of us can rule."**

"How do you mean?"

**"Here let's try an experiment for the scientist eh. Ichigo will try to move our arm right and I'll try left."** He stuck the arm forward and his expression became focused, **"3, 2, 1." ** Ichigo's arm stayed entirely frozen in mid-air unable to move in either direction. Sweat broke out on Ichigo's brow as the hollow continued to put more and more effort into moving the arm. **"This is doing _nothing,_"** the hollow bit out, the strain apparent, **"Fuck it… let's stop."** He nodded in response to a mental cue and then suddenly the arm dropped to his side limply. He let out a tired breath, **"I can't do anything without him letting me and he can't do anything without me letting him."**

A startled gasp came from Ichigo's mouth unbidden followed by the hollow's laughter, **"I told ya we were equal Aibou, that's what ya get for not listening."**

"OOOHH, interesting!" Urahara said clapping with a laugh. While he looked fascinated the others around him simply looked worried.

**"Yer a real creep ya know?"** The hollow said with a sneer.

"Oh dear, if it's coming from you then I must be," the scientist said fluttering his fan in front of his face his curiosity forcing how unnerved he was to the back of his mind. He watched as Ichigo's face seemed to smooth as it returned from the distorted smile to the normal scowl.

Ichigo looked at Ishida, "So what now?"

Ishida pushed his glasses further up his nose face unreadable, "Being as _if_ your hollow tries anything you can stop him cold, what I said earlier still stands."

Ichigo sighed in weary relief, "You're actually taking that a lot better than I thought you would."

"Oh no. Frankly the idea of having anyone controlling someone else's body – much less a crazed hollow – is terrifying."

**"Hey I resent that,"** the hollow commented making Uryuu wince. Somehow hearing such an unbalanced voice leave Ichigo's still normally scowling face was even more disturbing than when the hollow was clearly controlling it.

The Quincy swallowed harshly, "The _only_ reason I am able to remain calm is the fact that you can stop him."

A snicker trickled from Ichigo, **"Better pray he has fast enough reflexes _Quincy_. We can't read each other's minds to know what the other is planning." **Ishida blanched and his hand twitched towards his cross again causing the hollow to cackle, **"Oh don't drop a stitch. I ain't stupid. I plan on surviving thanks."**

Suddenly Ishida found himself pinned to the ground by the neck looking up into the demented expression on Ichigo's face. Faster than he could even see much less react, the hollow was back leaning against the rock looking innocently at his nails, the two static sounds following the relocations the only way to tell he had even moved.

Ishida scrambled back, his cool façade shattered by terror.

**"Don't think I'm just going to let Ichigo let ya kill us. Just because we can stop each other doesn't necessarily mean we can't work around it." **He paused revelling in the fear of the other boy, **_'Oh, cowering Quincy. Didn't think their honour would let them.'_**

_'Leave it. You just threatened him using his friend's body. He's allowed to be scared, I know I would be.'_

**_'Oh really? Then why didn't ya stop me from talking?'_**

_'To be honest I didn't want to let you do that, but we're stuck like this right? 'Partners' like you keep saying. I figure you have some rights to my trust, because if we can't trust each other this is going to be much more difficult.'_

Ichigo's body froze for a moment, **_'Really?'_**

His shoulders shrugged, _'Might as well try. I know we don't have the same motivations, but you aren't STUPID. You won't do anything that'll get us killed willingly.'_

Ichigo's lips quirked up and then he burst out laughing causing the others to look at him curiously, **_"_Oh MAN that's rich! All this time, all the trying to convince ya, all the fighting, and NOW yer willing ta trust me?"**

_'What? It's not like I have much choice. We have to be able to trust each other if we want to get through our days.'_

**_'Ya hate me and I know it, but ya somehow expect me to believe this? Ya expect to trust ya, but I don't see a reason tao'_** the hollow smirked slightly. **_'Give me a reason and I'll think about it.'_**

_'Look, how about we talk later? We have others we still need to finish talking to,'_ Ichigo pointed out.

**_'Fine, but we're not done with this Aibou.'_**

Ichigo sighed, taking control of his body back, _'I know.'_ He then turned to the group and saw the others looking at him warily, "Sorry. He doesn't take well to threats. I was trying to get him to calm down."

"And has he?" Yoruichi asked suspiciously.

"For now."

"Ignoring how ominous that sounded, can we get the word of both of you that if you think you are becoming a threat you will come tell us?"

"Of course," Ichigo nodded.

**"Che, whatever. We won't do anything dangerous."**

"That _wasn't_ the question," Yoruichi growled slightly, her eyes glinting dangerously.

**"Fine, fine, you have my word,"**the hollow rolled his eyes. **_'Damn cat.'_**

Yoruichi stared at him intently, searching his face for any hint of deception and then sighed in acceptance, "I'll have to take it. Ichigo, you better keep a watch on him." She turned towards the others, "Now I figure we all have a lot of thinking to do, so let's all get out of here. There's not much else we can do until Kisuke has run some tests anyway."

"Alright," Uryuu nodded trying to keep a calm face, "I'll be leaving first then." He turned and began to make his way back up the ladder.

Ichigo leaned down to pick up his sword and rammed the hilt into the mask fragment causing thin lines to spread across it. He grit his teeth and then repeated the motion making the cracks deeper. He then reached up and began tearing the mask off with a grimace. When it was finally off and had dissipated, he sighed in relief wobbling noticeably where he stood.

"You okay Ichigo?" Yoruichi asked in concern.

"Yeah, I guess. I just keep thinking that eventually it won't come off." He rubbed his temples, "I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted."

She nodded the concern still visible in her eyes, "Just be careful okay."

"Right," he in return nodded, and then carefully slung his sword back over his head afraid of tearing his uniform again. When he finished he returned to his body, "Good night guys," he said with a yawn before heading up the ladder.

When he was out of earshot Yoruichi sighed, "I don't know about this Kisuke. He's a good kid and I want to believe he'll be okay, but…" she paused not sure she wanted to continue.  
>"But hollows are dangerous by nature? That's only <em>most<em> of the time," the shop owner said with a false smile.

She hugged her arms to herself while staring at the painted sky, "Yeah. It's the _most _in that sentence that isn't comforting."

\NMN/

Uryuu closed his front door behind himself with a soft click before quietly removing his shoes and proceeding down the hall. Bypassing the living room and kitchen, he made his way towards his room. He was about to open his door when his father's voice caused him to jump slightly.

"Uryuu, where have you been?"

He sighed in relief, "I was with some friends Father." He turned in place and made his way to his father's study, "I was under the impression you would be working late."

"I was supposed to," he nodded without elaborating.

"I see."

His father looked at him coldly, "I would like the truth now. Why did your reiatsu disappear along with two exiled shinigami's?"

The younger Quincy's thought process leapt forward trying to find a good explanation, but nothing he could come up with would hold up under his father's scrutiny. "I was training," he finally said lamely.

"Is that so," his father stared at him. "You are lying to me. I do not want you going back there, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir," Uryuu deflated under the man's gaze.

"Get out of my study."

Uryuu inclined his head and then turned and briskly made his way back towards his room. Turning the door knob, he entered it, and then turned to shut the door. With a harsh sigh he leaned forward against it heavily with his eyes closed, resting his forehead on the cool wood.

'What the hell are we going to do?' In an uncharacteristic bout of frustration he punched the door frame. He stared at his fist for a moment and then began shaking as the image of the hollow possessed Ichigo flashed through his mind dredging up all of the fear he had forced back and bringing it to the forefront of his mind.

'Me kill that? Who was I kidding,' he turned unsteadily and collapsed into his desk chair. "What the hell are we going to do," he repeated aloud as if it would help him think of something. All it did was make him realize how frightened he sounded.

\NMN/

Ichigo made his way home, eyes beginning to burn from sleep deprivation.

**_'Yer not lookin' too good Aibou,'_** the hollow snickered.

_'Not feeling it either,'_ he responded dryly, and then cursed. Right under his window stood his father. He was about to try to go a different way so he could enter the house from the front when he was spotted.

"Hey Ichigo," his father called out, his voice oddly serious for once.

Ichigo turned back and walked towards his dad noticing that he was smoking, "I thought you only smoked on the day mom died."

Isshin took a deep drag on the cigarette then looked at it between his fingers thoughtfully before breathing out with a sigh, "Usually yes."

"What's going on?"

"A question I would like to ask you, but you have no reason to trust me with the truth do you?"

Ichigo looked at his father in confusion, the calm demeanour disconcerting for him, "What do you mean?"

"Just what I said, you have no reason to trust me and I don't blame you." Isshin sighed again and then took another drag, "Try not to hate your old man too much for lying to you would you?" He regarded at his son with a look that was both weary and pleading, "It was all to protect you and your sisters."

"Dad, seriously what's going on?"

His father stared up at the sky, "I used to be a shinigami."

"What…" Ichigo gaped at his father like a fish.

**_'Woah, didn't see that one coming.'_**

"You heard me son. I haven't been one for a long, long time now, but my powers have been coming back. I didn't want to tell you until things had calmed down, but looking at it now that was foolish. With you nothing will ever calm down will it?"

"You've been lying to me _all _of my life and now you expect me to trust you?!" It took all of his self-restraint to not attack his father where he stood. "I… what the… how… fuck, just go away I need to think," Ichigo finally ground out as he rubbed his temples harshly.

"That's fine. If you have any questions about it I can answer them. I just truly hope you can trust me son. If you're having trouble I want to be able to help you," he turned away and dropped the cigarette on the ground before stepping on it. "Yuzu left you dinner in your room. Try to eat some."

Ichigo nodded absentmindedly and then made his way through his window with practiced ease even in his tired and distressed state.

\NMN/

Isshin made his way to the front door and into the house stopping in front of a giant poster. "He's growing up so fast Masaki. I just don't know what to do to help him anymore."

As always she simply stared back at him, smile frozen from a time in the past when life was easier.

**AN:** Oh hell guys, so sorry this took so long. Real life decided to come and hold me hostage, and it's going to happen again since finals are coming up. I hope I can get another chapter up soon, but there's no guarantee until after the semester is over.

Anyway hope you all enjoyed the chapter. :)

Edited: 8/25/13


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Edited: 8/25/13

Spoken

**Hollow**

Zangetsu

Normal

_Thought_

_'Normal'_

**_'Hollow'_**

_'Zangetsu'_

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

Ichigo fell onto his bed kicked his shoes off forcefully and slammed his tightly clenched fists against the bed with a strangled growl. Unclenching his hands with effort he ran them up his face and into his hair tangling his fingers in the orange coloured locks before pulling harshly. "That _fucking liar!_" he finally hissed aloud venomously.

_'It would certainly make everything make more sense,'_ his zanpakuto pointed out trying to calm his host, _'The fact that you had your own shinigami powers as a human is probably unheard of if you think about it.'_

"I don't fucking _give_ a damn," Ichigo spat dangerously, his eyes dark, "I should _kill _him for what he's done. This whole time, no, all my life he fucking KNEW. He KNEW the spirits I saw were real and he KNEW that my being able to see them would put me in danger for having high spiritual pressure." He paused to take a breath before continuing in a voice that was beginning to sound more and more hysterical, "If he had so much as fucking TOLD me that I was in danger of being targeted – had told me about hollows –" his voice cracked and he finished in a nearly inaudible shriek, "_I_ _wouldn't have fallen for the King Fisher's trick and MOM WOULDN'T HAVE DIED!"_ When he finished he yanked his fingers free from his hair viciously, gasping for breath and twitching like he was restraining himself from strangling someone with all of his willpower. The only time he could remember being this angry and out of control was when he had first found out the truth behind his mother's death, and he was quickly spiralling even further than he had then.

_'I could kill the son of a bitch. It would be so EASY,'_ he found some dark part of himself pointing out, and it was tempting, oh so _very_ tempting.

_'I…GO…'_

Images flashed across his mind: removing his father's soul with his substitute badge and attacking him before he could even react and then…

_'… ICHI…GO…'_

…and then… then he could _eat_ him; it would be _deli-_

_ICHIGO!'_

Ichigo flinched and then stiffened as Zangetsu's voice finally filtered through his clouded mind. He opened his eyes realizing they were closed and then blinked the world back into focus, "What the… did I really just…" He felt something wet dribble from his chin and he wiped it away realizing in horror that it was saliva. His eyes widened, "Oh god, Zangetsu, what was I just _thinking_?!"

**_'Pretty obvious if you ask me,'_ **his hollow commented in a sing-song voice causing his warped voice to send shivers down Ichigo's spine.

_'First of all that was not what you would define as 'you' thinking of that. It was more primal. There was very little thinking involved. It seems you still don't understand Ichigo, your hollow instincts are an unavoidable part of you now. Both of us could see the images and feel the instincts driving you to want to go through with those actions. You MUST control your anger – I cannot stress this enough – your instincts are feeding off of it. You cannot allow them to control you if you wish to remain as close to being mentally 'human' as possible... as close to what you used to be like.'_

**_'Aww come on Zanny, Aibout just wants to kill his old man, and frankly he has good reason.'_** He cackled, **_'His instincts were just helpin' him along.'_**

"Shut up," Ichigo shakily snarled while running his hands up and down his arms trying to reign in the panic that was threatening to swallow him whole.

**_'Awww, scared of yerself now Aibou? Yeh KNOW the idea of eating daddy is appealing. Yeh were even drooling! Nothin' wrong with it, after all ya ARE a hollow, it's part of your nature now to want to eat yer loved ones.'_**

"Shut up, _shut up, SHUT UP!_" Ichigo whimpered loudly, his eyes tearing up as he pulled his knees to his chest in an attempt to stop his body from quivering

_'Leave him be,'_ Zangetsu said firmly trying to prevent more damage.

**_'Look, it's not my fault he's such big damn baby,'_** the hollow pointed out while rolling his eyes.

_'Just be quiet,'_ Zangetsu snapped.

The last thing Ichigo heard was an annoyed sigh before the two's presence faded from his awareness leaving him alone with nothing but his own dangerous thoughts. Unable to stop himself he sobbed quietly. _'Close to what you used to be like…' _the words repeated over and over in his mind warping and tearing at him. _'I will never be the same again_,' he realized in despair. _'How the hell can even I live like this?'_ he questioned helplessly almost hoping for an answer even if it was his hollow tormenting him again. He lay there shaking and minutes passed with no reply. He continued to lie there quietly until exhaustion finally forced him into a sleep that was thankfully free of dreams.

\NMN/

Aizen was, for lack of a better word, irritated. His expression belied none of this of course – he had had over a century to practice controlling his expressions – though had he been a lesser man he might have been screaming aloud. His plan that he had been working on for longer than he cared to think about had been thrown further off track than it had in many years when Ichigo killed Yammy. It wasn't the loss of man-power that had him on edge – no, he could be replaced – it was the repercussions that came with him losing his highest ranked fighter. Hueco Mundo was a place run on pure Darwinism, so when Yammy had fallen it had made his leader look weak – never mind that most hollows couldn't even measure up to a fraction of Yammy's strength before his downfall. It had only been a bit over a day, but already they had seen hundreds of hollows attempting to attack Los Noches, some alone, some in groups, but no matter how they came they were beginning to get on Aizen's last nerve. He allowed himself a light sigh, the attendant arrancar ignoring it with trained politeness. He hadn't even been able to review the security with everything that had been going on, but thankfully that was about to change. He was hopeful that the recordings from the day before would give him something to work with, and he still needed to check on the progress of the newly appointed Espada. He had only been able to fill the 4th, 5th, and 7th positions with the three he had been working on, though he supposed that was better than only being able to fill the lower positions. He wondered briefly if the fourth one – a female – that he had attained about an hour before would truly be able to fill the position Yammy had vacated, and decided to have her tested as soon as she had finished adapting to her new form. She was certainly an odd specimen, but he needed to know if her instability would be a problem as soon as possible so he could begin solidifying plans. Starrk was a good número Uno, but he preferred to have a back-up if he could.

He strode purposefully through the door to the security room and pulled up the recordings he wanted, starting with the point when Yammy began fighting. Hitting a few more buttons he pulled up the images from all the cameras up onto a large screen and pressed play. The fight began, playing out fairly predictably, but he refrained from skipping through the video to mentally document any variations from the norm. Those attempting to fight Yammy looked laughably pitiful in his opinion and were nowhere near strong enough to defeat him. After several minutes something happened that finally piqued his interest. The fight came to a complete standstill as they all went rigid looking in an upward direction. Some of them spoke, but even with a lack of audio Aizen began to get a clearer picture of what had happened. With quick movements across the system's buttons he pulled up the fight in which Ulquiorra was defeated. He stared at the recordings intently, noting that somehow Ichigo had become far stronger, but still not nearly strong enough to defeat the 4th Espada much less Yammy. Then the two went through the roof and he barely refrained from cursing before he fast-forwarded, seeing Ichigo's friends follow him and then pressed play again when he caught a slight blur move in from the hole. Raising his eyebrows he slowed the speed of the video and was only slightly surprised to see Ichigo moving far faster than he had ever seen anyone go before. The fact that he was so blurred when the surveillance equipment was able to pick up on shunpo and sonido alike was quite a feat. Something that happened up there and whatever it was, it was making him really regretting not having cameras on the roof. He followed the blur until it reached Yammy where Ichigo stopped and he noted the boy scratching himself insistently while wondering if it was of any significance. He quickly lost Ichigo in a blur as the fight began. Somehow Ichigo had the clear upper hand even if he was clearly holding back. After sending the others away he was surprised to see the boy trying to talk to Yammy as if trying to calm him down, but it did no good of course given Yammy's personality. After a few moments more of fighting it looked like Ichigo had begun to cackle. Aizen furrowed his brow trying to watch the boy closer since the laugh apparently was enough to throw off Yammy enough for him to lose another arm. The boy's face had begun to grow a mask, but it looked nothing like the one Aizen had seen before, and it stopped spreading once it reached a certain point. He would have wondered if Ichigo's hollow had taken over had Ichigo not snapped out of it when Yammy finally spoke to him. As Aizen watched them speak he felt a sense of excitement growing in him. Somehow he knew he was about to see something unprecedented, after all this was Ichigo and he was continuously surprising people. Then it happened and it was all he could do to contain himself and not crow in delight. The boy had a hollow hole.

He allowed his mouth to split into a chilling grin and his thoughts began to work their way through the beginnings of a plan. If he played his cards right he could gain Ichigo as a somewhat willing ally, and he would just _love_ to rub that in Yamamoto's face.

"Gin," Aizen said causing the man to seemingly appear from nowhere. "I assume you saw everything."

Gin's grin twitched wider, which was more than enough for Aizen to know he had. "Good, we will be taking some steps to attain Ichigo, and I would prefer him to come somewhat willingly. Soul Society will make that fairly easy for us. He may not agree with our cause, but we can protect him from execution if they find out what he is. Wouldn't it just be terribly unfortunate if there were so many souls and hollows for him to deal with that he revealed his secret on accident?"

"Of course. And with your authority being challenged in Hueco Mundo you would have no control over hollows entering the Human World. If Ichigo were to join us though, he could work on stopping them before they even left."

Aizen nodded, pleased, "Excellent. Now I would like to check on our three promoted Espada and then see how far along our newest potential is in her change. Shall we go?"

Gin nodded and Aizen lead the way from the room, the attendant re-joining them as they entered the bright white hallways.

\NMN/

**_'Hey… hey Aibou, you should probably wake up now,'_** the voice of his hollow filtered through Ichigo's consciousness. Ichigo stretched, coming awake slowly, and rubbed his eyes before jerking awake when rough cloth ran across his face. "What the –" he looked down and realized he was already dressed in his school uniform.

**_'Ya slept through yer alarm and yer dad never came in, so I got ready for ya.'_**

Ichigo moved in front of the mirror and raised his eyebrows in surprise when he found his appearance to be fine, "Why?" He asked brow wrinkled in confusion.

Ichigo's head tilted to the side, **"Partly for trust and partly curiosity. I wanted to see what happens when we're in our human body. It turns out my voice sounds just like yours this way; I noticed yesterday at the park though you were probably too distracted." **He smirked, **"I don't think Yuzu noticed when we spoke on my way to the bathroom."**

Ichigo stiffened involuntarily not comfortable at all with these revelations before he forced himself to calm down. The hollow hadn't caused any trouble after all, and actually helped him instead.

"Er… thanks I guess," Ichigo said awkwardly.

**_'Pft, don't force yourself.'_**

"But you helped me, I shouldn't need to force myself," Ichigo pointed out in frustration, "It's unfair to you."

The hollow laughed in his head, **_'Ya think there's some sorta instant trust button? Fuck no. I don't expect any sudden changes and you better not expect it from me. Ya may have decided ta make an effort to trust me, but I ain't trustin' ya 'til ya give me a reason to.'_**

"So wait… you were testing me?" Ichigo realized.

**_'Yep.'_** Ichigo's face split into a grin, '**_That and screwin' with ya is fun.'_**

Ichigo froze a moment then rolled his eyes, "You _would_ do that."

**_'As much as I've enjoyed this little chat, you're about to make my effort to get you ready on time go to waste.'_**

Ichigo's eyes went wide and he whipped around to see the time, "Shit!" He jumped up from his bed and ran across his room to grab his school bag and pick up his shoes before shooting out of his room and down the hall coming to a skidding stop at the top of the stairs. Pausing a moment to calm down he proceeded down them and made his way into the kitchen the smell making his stomach growl furiously as a reminder that he hadn't eaten dinner. He didn't want to think about what else it was a reminder of.

_'What did you do with the dinner Yuzu left upstairs? I didn't see it.'_

**_'Oh that? Gave it to her when I saw her.'_**

Ichigo nodded as he entered the kitchen and smiled slightly when his sisters' worried looks came into view hoping to assure them that he was okay. "Morning Karin, morning Yuzu," he called out, his eyes roving around the room until he realized his dad wasn't there. Tension he didn't even realize he had been feeling released from his shoulders and he relaxed as he sat down with the girls at the table. He eyed the food with some nervousness before carefully putting a slightly large portion on his plate accounting for his lack of dinner. He began working his way through the plate and had nearly finished when he realized that the two hadn't said a word since he came in. Pushing the rest of his food around his plate he cleared his throat breaking the silence and causing his sisters to startle. "What's up?"

"Are you okay Ichigo? You've been acting weird," Yuzu blurted out in worry.

"It's not just that," Karin pointed out ominously, "I don't know if Yuzu can feel it or not, but I can." Her gaze bore into Ichigo's, "All of my life I've been able to _feel_ you, and I didn't even notice until the other day when you came in and it _felt like you weren't even there._"

"I –" Ichigo sat there for a moment in shock, his mouth agape and his thoughts derailed entirely. He had no idea what to tell her. Suddenly he felt his mouth move back into its usual scowl.

**"I can't explain." **The words left Ichigo's mouth and he felt his brow furrow his hollow matching Ichigo's expressions and cadence perfectly, **"Just trust me okay? Please?"** He felt his face move into a pleading position.

Karin glared at him suspiciously, "Yeah right, I get it."

Yuzu looked at him, her distress clear on her sad face, "At least tell us if you're okay or not!"

**"I'm fine,"** he said as he ruffled her hair, smiling slightly when she hugged him.

"You better be," she said with a pout.

**"Why wouldn't I be?" **He shrugged and then finished his food before dropping his plate in the sink. **"See you later,"** he waved and then walked to the front door, slid on his shoes, and walked out.

"Thanks," Ichigo said with a sigh.

**_'Hey if ya get caught by them then everyone would find out when they 'try to get ya help.''_**

"I know. I just hate the idea of lying to them and I didn't know what to do about it."

**_'I can't help ya all the time Aibou. Ya HAVE ta get used to lying or we're done for. Ya think Soul Society will just let ya go around like normal if they found out whatcha are? Sure yeh may have support from friends, but they're the minority there. Most of them would hang ya in a heartbeat.'_**

"I _know_! I know all too well what Soul Society is capable of and what kind of danger I'm in." Ichigo sighed, "If I lose control though I think they'd be right to do it…" He shook his head to get the depressed thought out of it, "But if that never happens… you're right I _do_ need to get better at lying." He tilted his head in thought, "You're _amazing_ at it though! How the hell did you imitate me so well?"

**_'I've been planning on taking ya over yeh dumbass. Being able to imitate you was a way to mess with anyone trying to kill me and probably make them doubt themselves long enough for me to… well you know."_**

"Ah…" Ichigo said nervously before trying to distract from the comment, "Well do you think you could help me with that?"

**_'And so tha negotiation tables open,'_** the hollow cackled and then fell into a more serious mood, **_'I want access to full control for at least half the time.'_**

The comment caused Ichigo to misstep and stumble in surprise, _'WHAT?!'_

**_'Ya heard me. Ya want me to start trusting you? Prove yer trying ta trust me.'_**

_'I… Can I have some time to think about it?'_ Ichigo asked with hesitation clear in his thoughts.

**_'Aaaand just as fast negotiations are already on hold. You can have some time Aibou, but don't think I'm happy. If I think yer putting_****_ off yer decision yeh WILL regret it.'_**

Ichigo chewed on his lip for a moment, "_Fine, I'll think it over during class today.'_

**_'Oh, bad boy, neglecting classes,'_** the hollow snickered.

_'You know you would have to sit through classes too if I agree,'_ Ichigo pointed out as he walked through the gate of his school, _'I refuse to give you all of my free time.'_

**_'Oh I know. Should be fun,'_** the hollow cracked Ichigo's face into a wide grin. **_'I always thought all the history stuff was interesting. Humans are so violent.'_**

Ichigo readjusted the smile back into his standard scowl, _'You know history isn't all about fighting though.'_

**_'Despite what you may think, I can deal with it. I listen in on yer classes sometimes when I'm bored.'_**

_'Really?!'_

**_'There is literally NOTHING to do in yer head other than talk to Zangetsu, and that gets OLD. I don't know how Zanpakutos do it without going nuts. Ya wanna know one of the main reasons behind why I wanna have time in control? That's why. To get the FUCK out of here. I won't deny I'd prefer full control all the time so I could do whatever the hell I want, but as far as I can tell that won't be possible now.'_**

Ichigo sat down at his desk lost in thought after having left his shoes in the locker, _'I can't have you doing anything that could get me in trouble and that means acting like me around ANYONE that could recognize me.'_

**_'Does this mean you're considering a yes?'_**

_'Maybe,'_ Ichigo said, his frown becoming more pronounced.

**_'We'll have to discuss rules later, the little princess is staring,'_ **the hollow pointed out, the sneer audible in his voice.

Ichigo raised his eyebrows and turned only to nearly jump out of his skin in surprise, "O-Orihime when did you get… so… close?" He asked his voice petering off as he warily stared at the girl's wide eyes that were only about a foot away. Somehow he had been so distracted he didn't see her crouch down beside his desk looking up at him.

"Wha- OH!" The girl said falling backwards in surprise.

Ichigo looked down at the girl and offered her a hand up which she took gratefully. He waited patiently wondering idly how anyone could be as clumsy as she was before she finally seemed to get her thoughts straight.

"I- um… Well…" She stuttered for a moment, "I was worried about you, but you were keeping your head down so I couldn't see your face and I wanted to see your face so I could tell if you were okay and then when I saw your face I realized you were having a conversation and it was making you frown more so I was wondering what was making you unhappy and –"

"I'm fine Orihime," Ichigo cut her off mid-babble, "There's nothing you need to worry about."

"Oh." She said snapping he mouth shut. "Well then…" she giggled lightly trying to hide her embarrassment, "I guess I worried about nothing." She fiddled with her skirt for a moment nervously before bursting out, "If you ever need someone to talk to I'll listen Kurosaki." She then turned abruptly trying to hide her expression and made her way back to her seat tripping slightly once on her way.

Ichigo watched her walk away and sit before he shrugged, _'At least she hasn't caught on to anything.'_

**_'Yeah, but she sure is one weird-ass bitch…'_**

\NMN/

Inoue settled down in her seat uncomfortably feeling Ichigo's eyes on her. As soon as he looked away she sighed in relief feeling her hands shaking in her lap. No matter what she did she kept seeing images of that… that _thing_ Ichigo had become whenever she saw him or even spoke with him. She knew it was entirely unfair to him, but every time she interacted with him she had the hardest time trying to act normal… to act unafraid. And it _was_ acting and she knew it. If she was truly frank with herself Ichigo now terrified her, and it didn't help things at all that she couldn't feel his reiatsu to reassure herself that nothing was wrong; the absence of the familiar warmth left her imagining the oppressive reiatsu crawling across her skin instead. No matter what she did, no matter how much she worked to be calm, it was useless and she didn't know what to do about it. She hated herself for feeling so weak… so out of control of herself and her emotions. She just hoped she could get over it and that Kurosaki would forgive her if or when he ever found out.

**AN: **Once again SUPER sorry about this taking so long to come out. I ended up deciding to take summer classes in hopes of graduating earlier than I would otherwise. I've been rather busy because of it, but I'm on vacation for a few days. If everything pans out the way I want it to there will be another update before the vacation ends. Thanks for being patient with me.

Edited: 8/25/13


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Spoken

**Hollow**

Zangetsu

Normal

_Thought_

_'Normal'_

**_'Hollow'_**

_'Zangetsu'_

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

To say the twelfth division was in a frenzy would be a complete understatement as they worked through a flurry of paperwork, diagnostic readings, observations, and much more. They had been working around the clock ever since the Espada and other Arrancar Aizen had sent to the human world were pulled out. The fact that they had to work through information from the battles in Hueco Mundo on top of that simply made things more complicated. With all of the dashing around, teetering piles of test tubes, and overworked computers – with only cheap coffee to keep it all running – it was amazing that nothing catastrophic had occurred.

Amongst the chaos sat a man that many feared, the lighting from the computer glowing eerily against his paint decorated skin, and giving his golden eyes a disturbing gleam. Kurosuchi Mayuri had been sitting at his desk tearing through information he had attained with a toothy smile so big it looked like his head would split in two if it grew any wider. While the entire division slaved away under masses of information they had acquired on Aizen's arrancar, he was dealing with something far more intriguing: the mystery of Kurosaki Ichigo. While they had been in Hueco Mundo he had recorded several odd readings coming from the boy. So odd in fact, that at first he had thought the readings had been made in error since they were so different from the readings he had on the boy from previous encounters. It was only after further review that he had seen the commonality in the anomaly he was seeing with information he had seen millions of times over the years. The reiatsu in the boy was that of a shinigami, but with the dark twisted energy that a soul gave off when it was becoming a hollow. He had to admit he was glad he had thought to bug the boy's soul, because this was a veritable gold-mine since he had been unable to do any research on any previous shinigami that had been corrupted in such a way – Urahara had seen to that. Unfortunately the readings had become unreadable after a point due to the massive amounts of clashing reiatsu coming from the boy and the Espada he had been fighting on the roof. Even after the Cuatro Espada had perished he could not gain any more information because a rather baffling thing had occurred: the boy's reiatsu – despite his obvious lack of control over it – had completely disappeared. It was no matter he decided as he clapped his hands in a show of near childish excitement that was more than a little unsettling for those around him. He had plenty of data to work through for the time-being, and if his suspicions were correct his reiatsu was not gone. Given that the boy had proceeded to defeat the Cero Espada despite the lack of reiatsu readings it was reasonable to hypothesize that the boy was somehow holding it all in, and knowing the boy it was inevitable that he would slip up and give him more readings to work with. Until then he would keep monitoring the boy, and though there were times the bug went dark as he went under what was likely Kisuke's barriers – a minor irritant – he was not discouraged. It was only a matter of time.

"Nemu!" he snapped and his ever-loyal 'daughter' joined him at his desk wordlessly. "Take these papers," he picked up a pile about a foot thick and dropped them in her waiting arms as he continued, "and file them in my private lab."

She nodded to him submissively, "Yes Sir." Before she had even turned to go he was drawn back into his work. He had plans for this boy that practically had him bouncing in his seat. When he had enough information on him he planned to capture him and experiment on him, though with Soul Society's policies as they were he would have to be stealthy. It wasn't just a matter of them frowning on his experiments' morality in this case, it was a matter of losing the boy to the death penalty if it was ever discovered that he had gained hollow powers. His lips slipped down ever so slightly from their current position. Just the thought of losing his specimen in such a way was depressing.

\NMN/

Ichigo jogged around the track as the sun beat down on him, his pace lenient as his feet slapped the concrete in a repetitive tempo – not that he was paying attention. He was far too busy focusing on his thoughts to acknowledge his surrounding class-mates much less the fact that he was clocking in at a much slower pace than he usually did in his physical education class. Despite what he had told his hollow, if he was being honest with himself he felt uncomfortable, if not unnerved, with the idea of sharing his body at all, much less half the time, which was hardly surprising given his hollow's personality and the danger any hollow presented. If the circumstances had been any different he never would have considered the idea and fought with all he was worth in order to keep full control of his body. This wasn't normal anymore though, he had to acknowledge. It wasn't even _his_ version of what he considered normal. No, that had been brutally altered yet again as soon as he was stabbed through his chest, and now there were new things to consider. There was no escaping the fact that not only was his hollow dangerous, but now he was too if he lost control over himself, something he had realized was rather tenuous at best now. On top of that his hollow had actually gone out of his way and _saved_ him, no matter the results of the attempt. Sure it was out of self-preservation and the side-effects disturbed him on a primal level, but as far as he could tell the effects of what the hollow had done had shocked him just about as much as he himself had been shocked. He contemplated that fact before shaking his head and continuing on from the previous train of thought. The final most damning thing he had to consider was the new and completely inescapable concept of him and his hollow having what seems to be the exact same amount of control on his body. His thoughts froze on that thought for a moment before he heaved a long uneven sigh as he continued to run almost robotically and correcting himself: _their_ body. There was little use in denying it after the display yesterday. He had tried as hard as he could, but when his hollow was trying to move their arm one way and he the other, it was a hopeless attempt from the beginning. The ramifications of this didn't escape him, and he was quickly coming to the realization that what he had said about trust before was quite possibly the only way the two of them could survive in-tact. He had to acknowledge that as ludicrous as the proposition his hollow had put forth had first seemed, it was the logical – if unpleasant – conclusion to come to as a solution for their problem. Ichigo rubbed his forehead where the increasingly noticeable throbbing of a headache originated. He knew now that it was right over where his mask was continuously trying and failing to form, and the reminder of his loss of humanity caused him to suppress the urge to whimper. He shook himself slightly trying to steel himself and regain his resolve and self-control. With a comforting trace of his usual stubbornness he finally settled on his decision as he made his way off the track and started his post work-out stretching out of habit.

_'Hey, you there Hollow?'_ he asked as he leaned forward into a stretch.

**_'I am now,'_** the hollow commented in a disgruntled voice sounding oddly as if he had been napping, **_'Thought you'd like the alone time.'_ **

Ichigo could almost imagine the being shrugging, _'Uh… thanks…?'_ Ichigo commented uncertainly.

A gargled chuckle filtered across his mindscape, **_'Don't expect it too often, I just wanted ya ta come to the right conclusion. Figured ya'd be more accommodatin' if I didn' bug ya.'_**

Ichigo felt his lips twitch up in a grin that wasn't his own, and covered it with another stretch. _'Should have known I guess,' _Ichigo sighed resignedly, _'Can't expect you to change too much.'_

**_'Course not. Glad yer learnin.'_**

Control of his mouth returned and he slid his expression back into a scowl before his hollow continued, **_'So wha's the verdict Aibou?'_**

Ichigo straightened from his last stretch and meandered towards the bleachers to wait for the rest of the class to finish the laps, _'Before I say yes, you have to promise to abide by the rules, ALL of the rules. This was still my body before it was yours. If you follow the rules I'll give you time in control. We'll start with a trial period before I let you get half of my days.'_

Ichigo felt his eyes roll before the hollow spoke up, **_'What'er yer terms then?'_**

Ichigo ran his hand through his sweaty hair, _'Well this is what I can think of now, though I may add something if I need to.'_

**_'Ugh, jus' get on with it,'_ **the hollow mentally grimaced.

_'Fine, fine. No killing anyone obviously,' _he began ticking the list off of his fingers as he went._ 'No eating souls, purifying them ONLY. Follow the rules of places you go to._ _Act like me or hide if you even SEE anyone I know unless they already know what's going on. Do NOT get me into trouble, especially with the law, and if I ask for control GIVE IT BACK and do it quickly.'_

**_'Aww, yer takin' the fun out of it,'_** the hollow cackled.

_'Yeah, well you can either take it or leave it,'_ Ichigo snapped back defensively. _'This isn't supposed to be FUN. This is our LIFE we're negotiating on here.'_

**_'Fine, I'll take it sheesh. Have I told ya yer too damn serious?'_**

_'Probably,'_ Ichigo rolled his own eyes this time and headed towards the locker room to change only to have his head nod outside of his control, and he had to fight back a cackle leaving him as his hollow commented, **_'True. So when do I get to start?'_**

Ichigo shrugged his shirt on and grit his teeth in nervous anticipation, _'Now is as good as any other time I guess.'_

**_'Sounds good to me,'_** the hollow grinned inside his mind, seeming to be nearly giddy as Ichigo felt himself slip somewhat roughly out of control of his body, leaving him as a spectator to his hollow.

His hollow stretched and shook out his limbs, allowing himself the ghost of one of his face-splitting smiles before smoothly settling his features into Ichigo's standard scowl, **_'Ya have NO idea how great it is ta have a body after all this time.'_** He turned to a mirror and quickly splashed some water on his face to get rid of some of the residual sweat. After drying his face off with a towel, he returned it to the locker and slammed it shut before he grabbed up Ichigo's bag and strolled into the gym. With a quick glance around the space he made his way towards a door before heading outside to walk to class.

**_'English is next right?'_** he asked as he reached the building.

_'Yeah.'_

**_'Alrighty, should be interestin' I guess.'_**

Ichigo shrugged mentally and commented absently, _'This is really weird.'_

**_'You'll get used ta it, but it's not exactly what I'd call enjoyable.'_ **The hollow sat down in the classroom and pulled out the book to look through it.

_'So how good is your English?'_ Ichigo asked curiously.

**_'Hell if I know. I can read and understand it spoken okay, but I've never had ta speak it.'_**

Ichigo winced inwardly, _'This could be bad…'_

**_'Aw, how fuckin' bad can it be?'_**

\NMN/

A sliding door opened with a quiet hiss allowing Aizen to step through into the new Espada's training compound. Before he had taken a hand-full of steps he was virtually dive-bombed by an overly enthusiastic blonde female that appeared to be a teenager aside from the mask that started at the tip of her nose and spread across the upper left quarter of her face in a delicate looking shell-like design that contrasted noticeably with her glowing pink eye that clearly showed her arrancar nature.

"AIZEN-SAMA!" The girl practically squealed, "How are you today? We totally missed you, didn't we guys?!" She bounced up and down on the balls of her feet with seemingly boundless energy as an older, more athletic and rather plain looking woman with short cropped dirty-blonde hair and a less obvious thin mask fragment that crossed her nose and extended from one ear to the other made her way over to the two of them followed closely by a man who appeared to be of an age somewhere between the two.

He grinned, his eyes crinkling with smile-lines, and despite being slightly obscured by his brown hair, his green eyes danced with mirth above the almost tribal looking triangle mask fragments on each side of his face which stood out noticeably against his tan freckled skin, "Of course Trixie, why wouldn't we miss our brave leader?" The sincerity in his voice belied any possible sarcasm that might have been intended by the comment. He continued on, laughter now audible in his voice, "Of course you won't see us ambushing the man as soon as he enters the quarters because of it."

Trixie seemed to puff up in irritation at this as the older blonde watched silently, "Well _excuse _me Ian for being excited that Aizen-sama came to visit!" She stomped her foot with a childish pout and turned back towards Aizen and whined, "Where have you been? I missed you."

Aizen had watched the entire exchange passively with a disguised critical air. Arrancar were always odd beings in their own right – something that was hardly surprising with how much the dominant soul had to go through to attain possession of the body that so many souls shared – and these three were no exception. Ian was one of the most optimistic and generally nice people he had ever known (something he had to admit was incredibly odd for a hollow). Trixie, though often childish in personality was surprisingly calm and analytical when she felt like it, even showing a flair for politics and navigating bureaucracy Gin had informed him. The third one, Janet he recalled, was a quiet woman that clearly had some sort of militant training in her background – he would not have been surprised if she were an assassin – he contemplated pensively. She was more than a little awkward socially, and she spoke as if she wasn't used to talking to people, her voice halting and rough. Her fighting abilities however were meticulous, and she functioned like a well-oiled machine no matter what situations she had been put in to test her abilities. All three were good fighters in their own right, and overall he was truly pleased with them, enough in-fact, that he had no problem playing along with Trixie's zeal as something of a reward at least for the time being.

He slipped into the role of father-figure just as easily as any other façade and ruffled her hair with a chuckle drawing a pout out of the girl – likely due to the disarray he had made of her hair – and smiled, "I'm doing just fine; I've just been busy cleaning up after the attack Trixie." She grumbled ever so slightly as she ran her fingers through her hair trying to tame the mess he had made as he continued, "Also, I've come with good news for all three of you."

She perked up immediately and pranced over to the others and twirled back towards him when she reached them and resumed bouncing up and down, "Oh oh what is it?"

Ian patted the girl on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down as Janet studiously ignored her antics, "He was about to get to that I'm sure."

"Indeed," Aizen smirked. He inwardly prepared himself; he would have to sell the news he was about to give them as something appealing instead of the result of plans going awry. "As I was about to say, you three are being promoted to Espada – "

Before he could get another word out he was interrupted by the excited squeal of girlish excitement that might have had the word 'yay' within it – his ears were ringing too much for him to be sure – as Trixie jumped high into the air while pumping her fist.

Thankfully before the girl could get any more momentum Janet spoke up, her rough voice cutting through the other female's, "Those that died?"

"Obsolete," Aizen answered his tone flat.

Janet nodded in easy acceptance – it was the way of the hollow world after all for the weak to perish – and continued on, "What positions… will we be given?" Her faltering speech making her sound like she either had to pause to think over what she was saying before continuing, or she was in a constant state of being short of breath.

Aizen drew himself up and said in a more official tone, "Janet with be replacing Ulquiorra as the número Cuatro, Trixie will be the new Cinco, and Ian will be the new número Siete. For now the positions for Ocho and Nueve will remain vacant."

"And the position Yammy had?" Ian asked in a curious tone as Trixie danced around in the background, glee practically oozing out of her every motion.

"It is being dealt with," Aizen said shortly, the tone he used relaying that they should ask no further on that front. "Also, I know you took some interest in Szayel's work Ian, so you shall be allowed access to what he was doing."

"Thank you Aizen-sama, I shall take full advantage of this opportunity that you're allowing me," Ian smiled with an enthusiastic gleam in his eyes.

Janet merely nodded with the expected acceptance, "Yes Sir," and Trixie continued to react in her usual way going so far as to attempt to bear-hug him despite her small size, which he took with practiced grace.

"You may all move to the chambers provided for your positions and select some fracci_ó_n should you wish. I must be off now," he extricated himself from Trixie and patted her on the head before he turned abruptly and made his way back towards the door, "There will be a meeting soon, I will send a subordinate with the details." The door hissed open and shut as he left. He had to suppress a wince when he heard Trixie break into continuous shrill noises which he assumed were to convey her excitement. It really was unfortunate, he mused, that a girl as strong as her was so obnoxious most of the time.

\NMN/

_'That was –'_ Ichigo began tentatively only to have his hollow cut him off abruptly.

**_'Don' say ANYTHING.'_**

_'I was going to say better than I had hoped.'_

**_'It was fuckin' terrible, that's what it was.'_**

_'If it's any consolation, speaking the language is much harder than reading and writing it, don't let it get you down, you just need to practice.'_

Ichigo reflected for a moment over how odd it was to be giving his hollow encouragement as his hollow bit his hand to stifle something that sounded like it was part growl, part cackle, **_'You expect ME to willingly practice that shit?'_**

_'If you plan on passing as me so that you can get your time in control, then YES. Yes I do. I expect you to study and practice everything for school,' _Ichigo replied with a grim laugh. _'Don't think I'm giving you a free ride here. You want equality, you get the whole deal. The good with the bad.'_

The hollow rolled his eyes and sneered, **_'Fine fine, I'll be good.'_** The hollow rolled his shoulders back as they exited the school building and walked up to Ichigo's friends as he slung his bag over his shoulder holding it by the handle true to Ichigo's habit.

"IchigoooOOOOOO!" Keigo bellowed as he tried to tackle him with gusto. The hollow stepped gracefully to the side bringing Ichigo's bag back down to catch the boy in the stomach. Keigo hit the ground with the air knocked out of him.

_'Watch it,'_ Ichigo scowled mentally.

**_'What?'_** the hollow asked in an innocent voice, **_'He's had worse. I was jus' playin'."_**

"I'm okay!" Keigo called out confirming what the hollow had said as he sprung up from the ground and latched on to their back, "ICHIGOOOO how could you be sooooo crueeeeeel?" he asked drawing out the words into a whine as he began to sob dramatically. The hollow shrugged him off ignoring him as he turned to the others, **"You doing okay Orihime? Chad?"** He inclined his head to Ishida in what had become Ichigo's usual greeting to him. Sado nodded quietly, and Orihime fidgeted before stammering, "I… I'm doing fine Kurosaki." She smiled brightly and they all stood their awkwardly for a moment before Tatsuki caught up with them.

"What the heck was up with you in English?" She made to swat Ichigo in the back of the head only to have him turn slightly and catch her arm reflexively in a vice-like hold. The hollow fully turned towards her and then visibly relaxed and dropped her arm with a shrug in response to her question.

She rubbed the place he had grabbed with a wince, and inwardly Ichigo flinched as she commented warily, "That was quite a grip there Kurosaki."

**"Yeah… uh…" **the hollow ran his hand through his hair struggling for a moment on how to go about continuing, **"I wasn't thinking. Reflexes you know? Are you okay?"**

She nodded watching him with sharp eyes before relaxing slightly, "It's okay; nothing I can't handle. But seriously, what was with you in class?"

He shrugged in a convincingly sheepish manner, **"I guess I was just tongue tied or something."**

"Pretty bad for being tongue tied," she observed.

**"Yeah I guess,"** he agreed and began to rub at the source of the now perpetual headache as it began to grow worse in a reaction to his nerves and the stress.

**_'Bitch is too observant.'_**

_'Watch yourself. She's not stupid.'_

**_'I noticed.'_**

Thankfully Uryuu picked up on the problem and interrupted the increasingly tense exchange, "Kurosaki, did you forget we have somewhere we need to be?"

The hollow looked at him in confusion for a moment before he realized what the Quincy was doing, **"Oh right!"** He said making a show of smacking his own forehead, **"We'd better get going."**

After they said their goodbyes the two left the group with Uryuu taking the lead and the hollow following him silent for a few minutes. Eventually the Quincy spoke, his speech measured and precise betraying no uncertainty, "You're not Kurosaki are you?"

As if he had said some sort of magic words, the façade cracked and disappeared almost as if it had never been there as a wide grin spread across the hollow's face, and when he next spoke it was with his normal mockery and cadence, **"Nah, how could ya tell?"**

"Aside from the horrible attempt at speaking English earlier," Ishida deadpanned causing the hollow to scowl, "I just watched you closely. You're actually very good at imitating Ichigo," he commented. "Better than I would have thought, though your mannerisms sometimes seemed false when I was watching for it. I don't think people who are unaware of your… condition," he tried to say the word lightly, but it came out somewhat haltingly, "will be able to tell you're not him," he added refusing to voice how unnerving that truly was to him. If he hadn't noticed Ichigo's obvious lack of reiatsu and confronted him, he might have never even known; something he did _not_ want to contemplate. He shrugged, "You're a million times better than Kon ever was either way."

The hollow snickered making his skin crawl, **"Never thought either of us would get a compliment from ya."**

"That wasn't meant to be a compliment," Ishida responded with a glare pushing his glasses up his nose.

**"Right, 'course not. An' I'mma harmless puppy,"** the hollow smirked.

The Quincy's eyes turned cold, "Which makes me wonder _why_ Ichigo is letting you run around in control of _his_ body. He's supposed to be able to control you."

**"Control is a bit too strong a word _Quincy_," **the hollow replied saying the word like it left a bad taste in his mouth. **"An' let's jus' say we have an agreement," **he smiled sharply.

Uryuu's expression grew even more harsh as the hollow spoke, "Just remember, I _will_ end you if either of the two of you becomes a threat."

**"Yeah yeah, no need ta get yer panties in a twist,"** the hollow rolled his eyes and then cackled when he noticed a vein to pop out in the Quincy's forehead as the other boy clearly became aggravated. Deciding to cut him off before he could say anything in response the hollow drawled, **"Now if yeh would excuse us, we have homework to do so I can actually do something interestin'."**

Ishida froze up for a moment in shock before choking out, "Homework? How… how did he get you to…"

The hollow rolled his eyes again, **"Like I said, we have an agreement." **He turned with a sarcastic wave leaving the Quincy to stare after him with a bewildered expression and his mouth agape.

**AN:** Soooooo yeah there is pretty much no excuse good enough for how long it took me to finally get around to getting this up. I started working two part time jobs not long after the last chapter, then school started up, and from there it was a combination of writer's block and then not wanting to type up what I had written on paper because it's incredibly tedious. Of course a bunch of other things happened too, but yeah, no really good excuse and I feel pretty horrible about that. Thanks to those of you who continued pestering me, it may not seem that way, but it helped a lot and it's part of why I'm still here writing.

Hopefully you all don't mind the OCs too much; I decided to use some I had laying around getting dusty that I thought could fit in and be interesting enough in their own way. It was kind of necessary since some of the Espada would still have obviously been killed off, and I doubt Aizen is just going to sit there and not fill the positions.

Also I have a good portion of the next chapter on paper already I just have to type it. The good news on that front is that a friend of mine is now a reader and will likely set my ass on fire if I don't continue to update with some form of regularity.

I know it's been ages since I last posted and there will probably be a good amount of re-reading amongst you all, thus I went back and edited all of the old chapters too, so if it shows updates for those that would be why. I didn't change too much, though there are a few spots that are a tiny bit different.

Hopefully all of the formatting and page breaks will work properly this time. FF tends to get rid of bold/underline/italics when you really wish it wouldn't.

Thank you all for your patience and I apologize profusely,

-Laz


End file.
